Lady JC (PCRL presenter's birthday)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 043: JOHNATHAN J. WRIGHT (1840-1885)
1876 Black Invention: Improvement in Steam/Cylinder Lubricants, Elijah McCoy. (sc)
1876 E.M. Bannister, African painter, exhibits Under The Oaks at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and is awarded a gold medal. (jc)
1881 Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Ala., USA. with Booker T. Washington as its first president. (tr-iokts)
1893 Norman Washington Manley, Jamaican national hero and president, born. (Dies 1997)
1900 Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong, singer/trumpet player born in New Orleans, USA. When he died he was one of the best-known, best loved entertainers in the world, but many people forgot (if they ever knew) he was one of the most important stars in the history of popular music, having invented much of it. He died in 1971 but it's thought he may have been 2 years older. (mn-bmcd)
1910 Jack Johnson holds on to his heavyweight champion of the world title by knocking out Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada, he declared that not only did he have to fight Jeffries but psychologically he also had to fight the majority of the thousands of spectators, many of whom were howling and praying for Jeffries to 'kill the nigger.' In truth Johnson had to do more; on that day he had to fight psychologically the majority of the population of the United States. (mn-sb)
1915 Timmie Rogers, vocals, b. Detroit, MI, USA. Member group: 'Sugar Hill Time' (info.net)
1928 Lloyd Lambert, bass, b. Thilbodaux, LA, USA, d. Oct. 31, 1995, (Cancer). (Some sources show b. June 4.) The son of the legendary New Orleans bass player "Luscious" Lloyd Lambert, and brother of pianist Phamous Lambert. Lloyd Jr.was already gigging by age 17, and over the next decade worked in a number of R&B and Funk bands. Originally, Lloyd trained as a trumpeter. He began his career playing with "Hosea Hill's Serenaders". When Hill disbanded, Lambert formed his own band comprised mainly of former "Serenaders". The group was formed mostly for backing "Guitar Slim," when Slim had secured a contract with Specialty Records. He will perhaps always be best recalled as the bandleader of "Guitar Slim's" band, Interestingly, Lambert was already playing the electric bass. He also backed singers Ray Charles, and 'Little Richard'. Lambert did record a solo album, "Heavy Sugar" for the Specialty label (an instrumental), In 1959, when "Guitar Slim" died, Lambert toured with Nappy Brown, before then settling in Houston. TX. He worked as a sessions musician for the Duke and Peacock labels during most of the 1960s before finally returning to New Orleans. In 1981, and for the remainder of the decade, he led his own band which was resident at the 'Maison Bourbon'. He also helped to resurrect the career of James "Thunderbird" Davis, who had formerly opened for' Guitar Slim'. By 2003, he was part of Swedish singer Theresa Andersson's trio. Originally the trio included bassist Lambert and guitarist Glenn LeBlanc, with Andersson alternating between playing violin guitar, and vocals. Subsequently, the trio was often augmented with either drummer Jamal Batiste, or Willie Green - whoever happened to be available.( Andersson was born on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, began writing songs in Nashville, TN, and did some of her first solo performances in Austin, TX). In 1995, Lambert died of cancer. (info.net)
1934 Gilbert J. Lopez, vocals, b. Boston, MA, USA. Member: 'The Tune Weavers', a family grouping, consisting of lead singer Margo Sylvia; her husband, Johnnie, bass; Gilbert Lopez, Margo's brother, tenor; and Charlotte Davis, a cousin to Margo and Gilbert, who sang obligato. Their only big hit: 'Happy, Happy Birthday Baby'. (info.net)
1938 Bill Withers soul singer born in Slab Fork, West Virginia, USA. He moved to California in 1967 after nine years in the US Navy. Withers began hawking his original songs around west coast companies. He was eventually signed to Sussex records in 1971 and secured an immediate hit with 'Ain't No Sunshine'; produced by Booker T. Jones, with Stephen Stills among the guest musicians, a million seller!. (cl)
1943 Fred Wesley, trombone/arranger, b. Columbus, OH, USA . Played with the JB's (James Brown band) (info.net)
1945 Ruppie Edwards, reggae artiste born, Goshen, near Brownstown, St. Anns, Jamaica, West Indies. While at school he formed a band with home-made instruments, bamboo saxophone and thumb piano, and performed at school concerts. In 1962 he appeared on Vere John's Opportunity Hour and in th same your he made four records, for the Hi-Lite label in Kingston. (mn-cl)
1951 Ralf Johnson, with soul band Earth Wind and Fire is born. Earth, Wind & Fire is an American funk band, formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Led by Maurice White, they are best known for their hits of the 1970s, among them "After the Love Has Gone" produced by David Foster, "September", "Reasons", "Let's Groove", "Boogie Wonderland", "Fantasy" and "Shining Star". Earth, Wind & Fire became the first black performers to headline throughout the world without an opening act, to receive Madison Square Garden's Gold Ticket Award for selling more than 100,000 tickets and to receive the Columbia Records Crystal Globe Award for selling more than five million albums in foreign markets. They have gained the BET's Lifetime Achievement Award and ASCAP's Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award. They were the first black artists to have a single ("Shining Star") and its accompanying album (That's The Way Of The World) at number one status on the pop charts at the same time. (mn- jt)
1971 Donald McPherson, soul member of The Main Ingredient dies.The Main Ingredient is an American soul and R&B group, most popular during the 1970s. The group was founded in Harlem, New York in 1964. The original members of the group were lead singer Donald McPherson, Luther Simmons Jr., and Tony Silvester, who called their group "The Poets". After recording for a minor local label called, they changed their name to "The Insiders" and got a deal with RCA Records. By 1966, they had changed their name a third and final time, to "The Main Ingredient". The group affiliated themselves with producer Bert DeCoteaux, who crafted their first US Top 30 hit, "You've Been My Inspiration". Follow-up hits such as "I'm So Proud" (a cover version of an Impressions song), "Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling in Love)", and "Black Seeds Keep on Growing" did even better on the charts. McPherson died suddenly from leukemia in 1971, and The Main Ingredient recruited Cuba Gooding, Sr., the father of actors Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Omar Gooding, as its new lead singer. His first single with the group was 1972's "Everybody Plays the Fool", a gold selling single that hit the Top 5 on both the pop and R&B singles charts. Another gold single, "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely", hit the pop Top Ten in 1974, and the disco-based "Rolling Down a Mountainside" hit the R&B Top Ten in 1976. Later in 1976, Silverman quit the group for both a solo career and to start a production company with Bert DeCoteaux. He was replaced with Carl Tompkins, but the group disbanded a year later. Gooding garnered a solo deal with Motown, while Simmons became a stockbroker. The lineup of Gooding, Simmons, and Silverman reunited twice, once from 1979 to 1982, and again in 1986, but their releases were not as successful as the 1970s hits were. Simmons left the group again after 1986, and was replaced with Jerome Jackson. In the early-1990s, Gooding reassumed his solo career, and in 1999, Silverman and Simmons resurrected The Main Ingredient with Carlton Blount as the new lead singer.1991 National Civil Rights museum opens in Memphis, Tenn, USA. (wickpedia)
2005 Shirley Goodman, soul singer dies at Cedar Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. aged 69. Born 19th June 1936, New Orleans, U.S.A., Shirley Goodman, of the duo Shirley and Lee, later of the group Shirley and Company, Shirley (as part of the duo Shirley and Lee) was probably best remembered as the singer of the song 'Let The Good Times Roll. Prior to the passing of Leonard Lee in 1976, she formed the group Shirley and Company, who scored with the hit 'Shame, Shame, Shame'. Shirley was married, and had one son. Shirley attended school with Leonard and was teased about her vocal delivery, with her father telling her it 'put him on edge'! Shirley and Lee asked Cosimo Matassa, at his studio in New Orleans, if they might record a song. Matassa agreed and the duo cut 'I'm Gone'. The song was later remade and hit the number 2 spot on the U.S. R & B Charts. The duo also recorded 'Shirley, Come Back to Me', 'Shirley's Back', 'The Proposal', 'Lee's Goofed' and 'Feel So Good'. They were presumed to be a couple although Shirley was, actually married to a builder in 1955. 'Let the Good Times Roll' turned out to be their biggest success, crossing over to the Pop Charts. The duo recorded up until 1963, after which Shirley undertook session chores for the likes of Sonny and Cher, Dr John, The Rolling Stones and Jackie DeShannon. shirley's credit on the rolling stones 'exile on main street' album liner notes Shirley & Lee were briefly reunited in 1972, after Shirley had recorded with several other artistic partners, including Shirley & Jesse, who recorded the song 'Ivory Tower'. Sylvia Robinson then asked Shirley if she would record 'Shame, Shame, Shame', along with the All Platinum artist Jesus Alvarez. The song became an international disco hit. (soulwalking.co.uk)
2007 Bill Pinkney (The Original Drifters) (b. 15th August 1925, Dalzell, South Carolina, U.S.A. d. 4th July 2007, Florida, U.S.A.). (soulwalking)
5th. JULY
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 044: GEORGE W. WILLIAMS (1849-1891)
1808 Abyssinian Baptist Church organised. The world's largest Negro congregation is the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York. Established by Thomas Paul and eighteen other Negroes in 1908, this church has over 15,000 members and is a major force in the life of Negroes of New York City. A community in itself, the Abyssinian Baptist Church is the elongated shadow of one man - Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. (hear BHPAP 086) (mn-ss)
1892 Black Invention: Andrew Beard is issued patent for his rotary engine.
1899 Anna Arnold Hedgeman born. She was an African-American politician and activist. From Marshalltown, Iowa she was nurtured in a home of former slaves in both parents and grandparents. She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota where at breakfast prayers were said for the day. At night all of her family members reported on how they had been useful. Useful was the optimum word, useful to yourself and useful to life. In 1922, she became the first black woman to graduate from St. Paul’s Hamline University. In 1936 she married Merritt A. Hedgeman, an interpreter and singer of Black folk music and opera. Hamline awarded her an Honorary Doctor degree in 1948. Hedgeman was a NOW founder and the first Black woman to serve on a mayoral cabinet in New York City from 1954 to 1958. She is also credited with recruiting over 40,000 protestant churchmen to participate in the 1963 March on Washington. Dr. Hedgeman died on January 17 1990 in Harlem Hospital. Today, her portrait hangs in The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (d.1990) (tr-bl-aareg))
1913 "Smiley" Lewis, R&B vocals/composer, b. Louisiana, USA;. d. October 20, 1966. His composition, "I Hear You Knocking", reached No.1 in the UK, and No.2 for Dave Edmunds, in the USA. (info.net)
1939 Owen Gray, reggae artiste born in Jamaica, West Indies. Owen Gray was Jamaica's first home-grown singing star, and the first Jamaican singer to achieve recognition (and stardom) doing something other than calypso music. He seemed destined for stardom at an early age -- born in Kingston in 1939, he showed an affinity for music and a love of singing very early in life, winning his first talent contest age the age of nine and also distinguishing himself in the local church choir, where he sang first tenor (and his mother played piano). His father was a career military man, but the younger Gray set his sights on music as a career early on, and by his teens he was an experienced singer and performer -- he attended the Alpha School, whose other alumni included such future legends as Tommy McCook and Dizzy Johnny Moore, and by 19 he was ready to turn professional. (mn-cl)
1958 Charles Nukes Newport. Despite protest from hard-core stuffed shirt so-called purists who considered him a rock n' roller with minimal connections with jazz, Ray Charles made his first appearance at Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, and received a well-deserved standing ovation from many who found his mixture of soul, R&B, gospel and big band uplifting. (mn-jt)
1975 Arthur Ashe wins the Men's Tennis title at Wimbledon.
Independence day in the Republic of Cape Verde. (jc)
2006 Singer & poet, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to two-to-four years in prison for violating a plea deal on a drug possession charge by leaving a treatment center. Heron said he is HIV-positive and claimed the in-patient rehab center stopped giving him his medication. The prosecution countered that Heron had once skipped out for an appearance with singer Alicia Keys. (wickpedia)
6th. JULY
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 045: PICKNEY PINCHBACK (1837-1920)
1931 Della Reese, singer/actor born Dellaresse Taliaferro in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Reese is a renowned gospel singer, working with Malhalia Jackson and Clara Ward before becoming a lead singer with the Meditation Singers. She began a solo recording career with Jubilee in 1957, releasing the Top 20 hit And That Reminds Me. Best album Della (RCA 1960). (mn-cl)
1937 Gene Chandler soul singer born Eugene Dixon in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Recalled for the gauche but irresistible 1962 US number 1, Duke Of Earl, Chandlers million selling-single in fact featured the Dukays, a doo-wop quintet he fronted. His record company preferred to promote a solo artist and thus one of soul's most enduring careers was launched. (mn-cl)
1943 Jan Bradley, soul singer born Addie Bradley in Byhalia, Mississippi, USA. Best remembered for her 1963 pop/R&B hit Mama Didn't Lie, that reached N0. 14 on the pop charts. (mn-cl)
1952 David Smith, member of Liverpool's soul group The Real Thing is born. The group emerged in 1976 with You To Me Are Everything, which reached N0. 1 in the UK. (mn-jt)
1957 Althea Gibson is the first African-American to win a tennis title at Wimbledon.
1969 Michael Grant, member of Birmingham's reggae band Musical Youth's birthday.Musical Youth formed in 1979 at Duddeston Manor School, Birmingham, England. This pop / reggae influenced group, featured two sets of brothers, Kelvin and Michael Grant, plus Junior and Patrick Waite. The latter pair's father, Frederick Waite, was a former member of Jamaican group The Techniques, and sang lead with Junior at the start of the group's career in the late 1970s. Although schoolboys, the group managed to secure gigs at certain Birmingham pubs and released a single, "Political" / "Generals", on local label 021 Records. An appearance on BBC disc jockey John Peel's evening show brought further attention to the group, and they were signed to MCA Records. Musical Youth Frontman 2005By that time, founding father Frederick Waite had backed down, to be replaced by Dennis Seaton as lead singer. During the winter of 1982, the group issued one of the fastest-selling singles of the year in "Pass The Dutchie". (Commonly misattributed to Bob Marley.) Based on the Mighty Diamonds "Pass The Kouchie" (a song about marijuana), the title had been subtly altered to feature the patois "dutchie" (literally a "dutch oven" cooking pot). The infectious enthusiasm of the group's performance captured the public's imagination, and duly propelled the record to Number 1 in the UK singles chart. It went on to sell over four million copies, and was nominated for a GRAMMY, but after one final hit with "Sixteen", they fell from commercial grace, and subsequently split up in 1985 when Seaton left the band. Plans to re-form were initially scotched when Patrick Waite, who had gone on to a career of juvenile crime, died of natural causes (hereditary heart condition) whilst awaiting a court appearance on drug charges. (mn-jt)
1971 Louis Armstrong, jazz singer/entertainer/trumpet player dies. Born on 4th July 1900, in New Orleans, USA. When he died he was one of the best-known, best loved entertainers in the world, but many people forgot (if they ever knew) he was one of the most important stars in the history of popular music, having invented much of it. He was thought to have been two years older. (mn)
Independence Day-Republic of Malawi
1971 Black Invention: Gamma Electric Cell, Henry T. Sampson. (sc)
1975 50 Cent, rapper born Curtis Jackson in South Queens, N.Y.Curtis James Jackson III commonly known by his rap name 50 Cent or Fiddy Cent, is an African-American gangsta rapper, who rose to fame following the success of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. 50 Cent achieved multi-platinum success with both albums, selling around 26 million albums worldwide. Jackson is known for his gangsta image, and prides himself on having been shot and surviving the ordeal. (wickpedia)
1979 Van McCoy, soul producer/arranger/performer dies. This successful artist had been a member of several groups prior to announcing his solo career with Hey Mr. DJ. Released in 1959, the single was distributed by Sceptre records, with whom McCoy subsequently served in an A&R capacity. He also branched out into writing and production work, making contributions to hits by the Drifters, Gladys Knight & Pips and Barbara Lewis. He also enjoyed success with Jackie Wilson's I Get The Sweetest Feeling in 1968. He later worked with the Stylistics. He died from a heart attack. (mn-jt)
2010 Harvey Fuqua dies. b. 27th July 1929, Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A. Dies in Detroit Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. The singer, songwriter and record producer, was 80. The Motown Alumni Association stated Harvey died of a heart attack. Harvey Fuqua, was born in 1929 in Louisville, Kentucky. He created the doo-wop group, the Moonglows (along with Bobby Lester (b. 13th January 1930, d. 15th October 1980), Alexander 'Pete' Graves (b. 17th April 1930, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.) and Prentiss Barnes (B. 12th April 1925, Magnolia, Missourri, U.S.A.), and whose line-up also included Marvin Gaye at one time). (bill randal)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 046: ELIJAH MCCOY (1843-1929)
Saba Saba Day in honour of the workers of Tanzania.
Independence day in the Republic of Malawi. (jc)
1791 The nondenominational African Church is founded by Richard Allen, absalom Jones, and Benjamin Rush. (tr-iokts)
1851 Charles Albert Tindley was born. He was a Black Methodist Episcopal minister and lyricist. From Berlin, Maryland, the son of slave parents, Tindley taught himself to read and write. Later he attended night school in Philadelphia, and took correspondence courses from the Boston School of Theology. When he took his examination for the ministry, he was the janitor of the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. In 1902, he became pastor of this same church where he served for more than thirty years. While he was pastor of Calvary, the membership reached 12,500. Because of such successful leadership, the church was renamed the Tindley Temple Methodist Episcopal Church in 1924. Tindley is also known as one of the founding fathers of American Gospel music. An example of this is "Beams of Heaven." I do not know how long 'twill be, Nor what the future holds for me. But this I know; if Jesus leads me, I shall get home someday. Few things of lasting qualities exceed the contributions of African-Americans to the world of music, especially singing, has always been an integral part of the Black church worship experience. The beginning of the twentieth century introduced the contribution of Black songwriters to the service of worship. One such person was Charles Albert Tindley who wrote nearly 50 hymns. His music captured the confident testimony of his life and ministry until his death in 1933. (aareg)
1906 Helen Johnson was born on this date in 1906. She was an African-American poet during the Harlem Renaissance. From Boston, Helene (a nickname given to her by her aunt) Johnson spent her early years at her grandfather’s house though she grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. She took classes at Boston University and was a member of that city’s Saturday Evening Quill Club. She began her literary career when she won first prize in a short story competition sponsored by the Boston Chronicle. At that time she was also given an honorable mention in a poetry contest organized by Opportunity, the journal of the National Urban League and a leading showcase for the talents of African- American artists. Johnson and her cousin Dorothy West moved to Harlem in the 1920’s where she attended Columbia University for a time. Johnson never graduated from Columbia. She continued to write poetry, her work was in the first and only issue of Fire!!, edited by the novelist Wallace Thurman, poet Langston Hughes and artist Richard Bruce Nugent, who encouraged Johnson to launch a career as a writer. She was once hailed as one of the best poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Then, suddenly, she disappeared from the literary scene, and for more than fifty years wrote only for herself. Her published legacy is a handful of widely anthologized poems that capture the youthful spirit of urgency and discovery that animated jazz-age Harlem in the decade before the Depression. In 1935, Johnson’s last published poems appeared in Challenge: A Literary Quarterly. She married William Hubbel soon after, and had one child Abigail. Helen Johnson died in 1995. (aareg)
1915 Dr. Margaret Walker, writer born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. A poet, her poem "For My People" became an anthem for the black community. Dr. Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander (July 7, 1915-November 30, 1998) was an American Black poet and author born in Birmingham, Alabama. She wrote as Margaret Walker. Her father Sigismund C. Walker was a Methodist minister and her mother was Marion Dozier Walker. They helped get her started in literature by teaching a lot of philosophy and poetry to her as a child. In 1935, Walker received her Bachelors of Arts Degree from Northwestern University and in 1936 she began work with the Federal Writers' Project under the Works Progress Administration. In 1942 she received her master's degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa. In 1965 she returned to that school to earn her Ph.D. She also for a time served as a professor at what is today Jackson State University. Her literature generally contained African American themes. Among her more popular works were her poem For My People, which won the Yale Award for Young Poets and her 1966 novel Jubilee, which received critical acclaim. In 1988 she sued Alex Haley, claiming his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family had violated on Jubilee's copyright. The case was dismissed. Margaret Walker died of cancer in Chicago in 1998. (wikipedia-iokts-tr-bl)
1916 Lloyd 'Tiny' Grimes, musician is born in Newport News, Virginia started out on drums in his high school band, then switched to piano. Moving to New York City in 1937, he began working out on four string guitar. After a year or two with The Cats & Fiddle, he joined Slam Stewart in Los Angeles, and later formed the Art Tatum Trio with Tatum & Stewart. After Tatum went solo, Grimes formed his own band and returned to the east coast, recording with Blue Note & (with Charle Parker) Savoy. His recording the Midnight Special was one of Atlantic Records's first hits #12 on The Most Played On Juke Boxes chart in Billboard, November 20, 1948. (mn-pg)
1927 [Christopher Stone] played records at the BBC's Studio 3, thus becoming the very first British 'disc jockey'.
1930 Hank Mobley born. He was an African-American jazz saxophonist. Mobley was from Eastman, Georgia. He was playing in a New Jersey R&B band in 1951 when Max Roach discovered and recruited him. After working with Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie, he joined the Horace Silver quartet in 1954. This group became part of the Jazz Messengers and the members backed Mobley when he began leading his own recording sessions in the mid 1950s. During the early '60s, he recorded two of his definitive Blue Note albums, No Room For Squares and Soul Station. He also worked with Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, and Elvin Jones. In the early 1970s, he co-led a quartet with Cedar Walton. For a brief time in Chicago, he composed for Muhal Richard Abrams' AACM Big Band. Plagued by various health problems, Mobley retired from music in 1975. Four years later, his excellent 1966 recording, A Slice Of The Top, was released for the first time. If a characteristic of hard bop was an infusion of blues and funk, then saxophonist Hank Mobley was an essential proponent. However, his own challenging rhythmic quickness and detached lyricism set him apart from the trends of any era. "Not a big sound, not a small sound, but a round sound," is the personal ideal Mobley described to one jazz writer. (aareg)
2009 Fans, family, friends and stars are saying farewell to Michael Jackson at a memorial service in Los Angeles. His coffin was carried into the Staples Center in Los Angeles by his brothers following an earlier private funeral. It was put in front of the stage as his siblings, parents and children sat in the front row, with the brothers wearing single jewelled gloves. Stevie Wonder paid tribute, saying: "This is a moment I wished I didn't live to see come. Michael I love you." The crowd cheered as the golden flower-draped coffin entered the arena to the strains of a choir singing "Hallelujah, hallelujah, we're going to see the King" from the song Soon And Very Soon. Michael Jackson's brothers wore his trademark single gloves . Mariah Carey opened the show, performing I'll Be There, ending with the words: "We miss you." Jackson's brother Jermaine took to the stage to perform the song Smile. It was said to be the King of Pop's favourite song, featuring the lyric: "Smile though your hearts are aching." Others paying tribute included Lionel Richie, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Brooke Shields. Some sang, while others spoke about their memories of the King of Pop and his influence on music and society. Many embraced family members as they left the stage. The BBC's Matthew Price, who is in the arena, said: "It's had to clearly see the family but the glimpses I'm getting show a family both in mourning, and in celebration of his life. "There are moments of the intensely personal in this very public event." Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton gave a fiery speech, telling Jackson's children: "There weren't nothing strange about your daddy." "It was strange what your daddy had to deal with but he dealt with it." Motown boss Berry Gordy, who signed the Jackson Five, ended his tribute with the words: "Michael, thank you for the joy, thank you for the love. you will live in my heart forever." Actress Brooke Shields, who first met Jackson when she was 13, broke down in tears as she took to the stage. Describing Jackson as "pure", she said: "He was often referred to as the King but the Michael that I knew was always the little prince. Michael saw everything with his heart." The 17,500 people in the arena cheered as clips of Jackson's life and music were played on big screens. Messages were read from absent guests including former South African President Nelson Mandela, poet Maya Angelou and singer Diana Ross. The stage was adorned with flowers and a tribute to Jackson. The message from Ross was read by Smokey Robinson. "I'm trying to find closure," it said. "I want you to know that even though I am not there at the Staples Center I am there in my heart. "Michael was a personal love of mine, a treasured part of my world, part of the fabric of my life in a way that I can't seem to find words to express. "Michael wanted me to be there for his children and I will be there if they ever need me. I hope today brings closure for all those who loved him." Other people taking part include Usher and Britain's Got Talent finalist Shaheen Jafargholi, who has played the young Michael Jackson in the musical Thriller - Live. The stage is adorned with the star's image, alongside a mural carrying the words: "In Loving Memory. Michael Jackson King of Pop - 1958-2009." Millions of fans around the world are watching on TV. Roads were closed off and concrete barriers erected outside the Staples Center, where Jackson had been rehearsing a comeback show before his sudden death aged 50 on 25 June. More than 1.6 million fans applied to attend the memorial event, with 8,750 people chosen at random to receive a pair of tickets. One person not attending is Jackson's former wife and the mother of two of his children, Debbie Rowe. "The onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction to an event that should focus exclusively on Michael's legacy," her lawyer Marta Almli said in a statement. About 50 cinemas across the US are showing the memorial live. It is also being relayed to big screens across the UK, Australia and Hong Kong. Family members earlier attended a short funeral service at the Forest Lawn cemetery. (bbc)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 047: NORBERT RILLIEUX (1806-1894)
1670 Jamaica ceded to England by the Treaty of Madrid. (mn-cb)
1908 Louis Jordan, saxophonist/singer born in Brinkley, Arkansas, USA. (Dies February 4, 1975, Los Angeles, Calif).The main factor that set Jordan apart from most of the competition was that he was at once a fine comedian and a superb saxophonist whose novelty value was never allowed to obscure either his musicianship or that of his sidemen, who at one time or another included trumpeters Idrees Sulieman and Freddie Webster (both major influences on boppers like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie), tenor saxophonists Paul Quinichette, Maxwell Davis and Count Hastings, guitarists Carl Hogan and Bill Jennings, bass player Dallas Bartley, drummers Shadow Wilson and Chris Columbus, and pianists Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett. In 1990 a musical by Clarke Peters entitled Five Guys Named Moe, which featured "music written or originally performed by Louis Jordan", opened in London. Four years later it overtook Irma La Douce to become the longest-running musical ever at the Lyric Theatre. After initially lukewarm revues, another production enjoyed a decent run on Broadway. That Louis Jordan influenced all who came after him, and continues to be a prime source of material for films, theatre, television advertising, R&B bands and bluesmen, 40 or 50 years after his heyday, is a testament to his originality and talent. (mn-rs-music.us)
1914 Billy Eckstine, singer born. Had three hits in the UK with No One But You (1954), Gigi (1959), and a duet Passing Strangers with Sarah Vaughan (1957/69). Also short fame on the UK's Northern Soul scene with Motown recording, 'I Wonder Why Nobody Loves Me 'in 1996. Often considered a ground breaker for black vocalists. He cut a swath through American before Nat "King" Cole came to the scene. He was one of the very first African American matinee idols, singing first with Earl "Fatha" Hines orchestra, then veering off with his own band. Sarah Vaughan was the "girl" singer with his own band, -two extraordinary talented singers. He appeared in several musicals for MGM in the late 1940's and early 1950's. (mn-jt-info.net)
1923 William Harrison Dillard was born on this date. He was an African-American Olympic track and field athlete. From Cleveland, Ohio, when his hometown honored the great Jesse Owens with a parade upon his return from the 1936 Olympics, the thirteen-year-old Dillard was one of the spectators. He later met Owens, who presented him with his first pair of running shoes. Known as "Bones" because of his tall, lean frame, Dillard entered Baldwin-Wallace College in 1941 and two years later was drafted into the Army. He returned to college in 1946 and won the NCAA and AAU 120-yard and 220-yard hurdles in both 1946 and 1947. He tied world records in both events with a 22.3 in the 220 in 1946 and a 13.6 in the 120. Dillard became the only athlete ever to win Olympic gold medals in a sprint and a hurdle event. Without any doubt, he was the best hurdler of his time, winning eighty-two consecutive races from May 31, 1947, through June 26, 1948. Because he hit several hurdles in the Olympic trials, he failed to qualify in his specialty, yet he made the Olympic team by finishing third in the 100-meter dash. In the Olympic final, Dillard and Barney Ewell finished in a virtual dead heat and the photo showed that Dillard was the winner. He tied the world record of 10.3 seconds. Dillard qualified in the 110-meter hurdles in 1952 and won his second individual gold in that event. He was also on gold-medal 4 by 100-meter relay teams in both 1948 and 1952. Mainly because of how well he came out of the blocks, Dillard won the AAU indoors 60-yard hurdle event seven years in a row, 1947 through 1953, and again in 1955, his last year of competition. He was also the outdoor 110-meter high hurdle champion in 1952. Dillard was named Sullivan Trophy winner in 1953 as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete. He is now retired after a career in public relations. (aareg)
1943 Faye Wattleton, women's rights advocate is born in St. Louis, Mo, USA. In 1978 she became the first African-American, the first woman, and, at 25, the youngest person to be elected president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Her many honours include Humanist of the Year Award for 1986. After serving as president of PPFA from 1978-92 she resigned to host a TV talk show. (tr-iokts-ss)
1955 Roy Wilkins made executive director of NAACP, he directs until 1977.
1996 A machete-wielding man attacks children, parents and a teacher at a 'Teddy Bears Picnic' in a school play ground in Wolverhampton. (mn)
1997 Nelson Mandela sets up a charity for home-less children with AID by donating a third of his annual salary. (mn)
2000 Venus Williams wins the Wimbledon Woman's tennis title. (mn)
2003 President George W. Bush said American slavery was one of history's greatest crimes. He spoke from notorious Goree Island, Senegal for several centuries a processing station for African slaves bound in chains for the Western Hemisphere. He said, "At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold. Human beings were delivered and sorted, and weighed, and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises, and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return. One of the largest migrations of history was also one of the greatest crimes of history." His public statement began a five-nation tour of Africa and was made from the very spot where millions of Africans were bought and sold like cargo. Bush also spoke toward sending U.S. troops to help end a three-year civil war in Liberia, a western African nation founded by freed American slaves. Bush was also touring the continent to promote his economic development and AIDS initiatives and to gain cooperation in stopping the spread of terrorism. The president, traveling with first lady Laura Bush and their daughter, Barbara, left Senegal on Africa's northwest coast and headed for South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria; all stable democracies and important U.S. allies in the war on terrorism. (aareg)
HANDWORTH POET BILL DUFFUS BORN
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 048: JAN ERNST MATZELLIGER (1852-1889)
1866 Sam Hague's Georgia Minstral Troupe, perform at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, UK. A group of 26 former Georgia slaves. (mn-pf)
1868 14th Amendment ratified, making African-Americans U.S. citizens. (tr)
1936 June Jordan, Poet and author is born in Harlem, N.Y., USA. She was an African-American writer and educator. From Harlem, New York, Jordan was the daughter of Granville and Mildred Jordan, Jamaican natives. Her father was a night shift postal worker and her mother was a nurse. When she was five, the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. During her high school years, she was "completely immersed in a white universe" while a student at Milwood High School and Northfield School for girls in Massachusetts. It was at Northfield, Jordan "discovered her poetic voice." her home circumstances were a source of conflict and anguish because of her father's physical abuse and her mother's denial. During these times as a young girl, Jordan's father taught her how to box; she has been fighting ever since. This environment resulted in Jordan's writing extensively about her parents and their positive and negative influences. In 1953, Jordan enrolled at Barnard College. Two years later, she married Michael Meyer, a student. While her husband completed graduate studies at the University of Chicago, Jordan continued her studies there until 1956 when she went to Barnard College, where she remained for a year. In 1958, she gave birth to her only child, Christopher David Meyer. Being in an interracial marriage in the 1950's was especially difficult due to societal attitudes and laws. In 1965, Jordan's marriage ended in divorce and Jordan faced the trials of being a single, working mother and forming her identity. Much of this challenge came forth in her writings. Her books of poetry include Things That I Do in the Dark (1977), Passion (1980), Living Room (1985), and Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems (1989). Other poems published are Kissing God Goodbye: Poems, 1991-1997 Anchor Books, (1997) and Haruko/Love Poems (1994). She is also the author of children's books, plays, a novel and Technical Difficulties (1994), Poetry for the People: A Blueprint for the Revolution (1995), a guide to writing, teaching and publishing poetry. Her collections of political essays include Affirmative Acts: Political Essays (1998). Basic Books published her memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, in 2000. Jordan has received a Rockefeller Foundation grant, the National Association of Black Journalists Award, and fellowships from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded Poetry for the People. June Jordan died of breast cancer on June 14, 2002, in Berkeley, California. (tr-iokts-aareg)
1941 Donald Mc Pherson soul singer with Main Ingredient born. He sang with the group when they were known as the Poets. Dies in 1971.This New York, USA-based trio, Donald McPherson (Born 9 July 1941, d. 4 July 1971), Luther Simmons Jnr. (Born 9 September 1942) and Tony Sylvester (Born 7 October 1941, Panama) made their recording debut in 1965. One of several groups using the name "the Poets", they decided to become the Main Ingredient and signed with producer Bert DeCoteaux, whose lush arrangements provided the requisite foil for their excellent harmonies. This skill was particularly apparent on such early releases as "I'm So Proud" (1970), "Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling In Love)" and "Black Seeds Keep On Growing" (both 1971). McPherson died from leukaemia in 1971 and, ironically, it was his replacement, Cuba Gooding, who sang on the group's million-seller "Everybody Plays The Fool". Although the Ingredient went on to enjoy further commercial success, their work grew increasingly bland and lacked the purpose of those early releases. Gooding embarked on a solo career with Motown Records in 1977, but reunited with Sylvester and Simmons in 1979, continuing to record under the Main Ingredient name into the 80s. Simmons was replaced by Jerome Jackson in the late 80s, following which the group moved to Polydor Records. (mn-rj-music.us)
1954 Debbie Sledge soul singer with Sister Sledge born. Debra (Born 9 July 1954), Joan (Born 13 September 1956), Kim (Born 21 August 1957) and Kathy Sledge (Born 6 January 1959) were all born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. They started their recording career on the Money Back label with 1971's "Time Will Tell". A short time working as backing singers followed before the quartet enjoyed a series of minor R&B hits between 1974 and 1977. Two years later they entered a fruitful relationship with Chic masterminds Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that resulted in several sparkling transatlantic hit singles, including "He's The Greatest Dancer", "We Are Family" and "Lost In Music". The sisters then left the Chic organization and began to produce their own material in 1981. Although success in the USA waned, the quartet retained their UK popularity and two remixes of former hits served as a prelude to "Frankie", a simple but irrepressible song which reached number 1 in 1985. The hits subsequently dried up and Kathy Sledge left for a solo career in 1989, but the remaining trio continues to perform on the concert circuit and released an excellent comeback album, African Eyes, in 1998. (mn-jt-music.us)
1968 Dennis Edwards, soul singer makes his first live appearence as David Ruffin's replacement with the Temptations. Edwards had prevoisly been a member of the Contours. (mn-jt)
1971 Kelvin Grant singer with reggae band Musical Youth born. Formed at Duddeston Manor School, Birmingham, England, this pop/reggae-influenced group featured two sets of brothers, Kelvin and Michael Grant and Junior and Patrick Waite (Born c.1969, d. 18 February 1993). The latter pair's father, Frederick Waite, was a former member of Jamaican group the Techniques, and sang lead with Junior at the start of the group's career in the late 70s. Although schoolboys, the group managed to secure gigs at certain Birmingham pubs and released a single, "Political"/"Generals", on local label 021 Records. An appearance on BBC disc jockey John Peel's evening show brought further attention to the group and they were signed to MCA Records. By that time, founding father Frederick Waite had backed down to be replaced by Dennis Seaton as lead singer. During the winter of 1982, the group issued one of the fastest-selling singles of the year in "Pass The Dutchie". Based on the Mighty Diamonds' "Pass The Kouchie" (a song about marijuana), the title had been subtly altered to feature the patois "dutchie" (literally a "cooking pot"). The infectious enthusiasm of the group's performance captured the public's imagination and propelled the record to number 1 in the UK charts. A US Top 10 hit also followed. The catchy follow-up, "Youth Of Today", also reached the UK Top 20 and early in 1983 "Never Gonna Give You Up" climbed to number 6. Minor successes with "Heartbreaker" and "Tell Me Why" were succeeded by a surprise collaboration with Donna Summer on the UK Top 20 hit "Unconditional Love". A revival of Desmond Dekker's "007" saw them back in the Top 30, but after one final hit with "Sixteen", they fell from commercial grace and subsequently split up in 1985 when Seaton left the band. Plans to re-form were scotched when Patrick Waite, who had gone on to a career of juvenile crime, died of natural causes while awaiting a court appearance on drug charges. The Grant brothers remain involved in music, while Seaton released a solo set in 1989 before going on to form his own band, XMY. A reformed version of Musical Youth appeared in 2003. (mn-jt-music.us)
1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the world's first successful open heart surgery without anaesthesia, the patient lives for 20 years. The most prominent African-American in medicine for many years, Williams was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He worked as a barber before he graduated from Chicago Medical Collage in 1893. He organised Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891. He was surgeon-in-chief at Freemen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., (1893-1898) and in 1899 became professor of clinical surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. (mn-ss)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 049: GRANVILLE T. WOODS (1856-1910)
1907 Blind Boy Fuller, bluesman, born Fulton Allen was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. Fuller was born in 1908 in Wadesboro, North Carolina and died February 13, 1941 in Durham, North Carolina. He played a steel National resonator guitar. Blind Boy Fuller was one of the most popular of the Piedmont blues artists that counted Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Blake amongst its number. He was so popular that when he died Brownie McGhee began a short lived career as Blind Boy Fuller No.2 so as to cash in on his popularity. His song, 'Trucking My Blues Away', also gave America the famous saying 'Keep On Trucking'. He was often accompanied on harmonica by Sonny Terry. Blind Boy Fuller lived fast and died young in 1942 from a severe bladder infection when he was only 33 years old. Blind Boy Fuller was a fine, expressive vocalist and a masterful guitar player best remembered for his uptempo ragtime hits "Rag Mama Rag," "Trucking My Blues Away," and "Step It Up and Go." At the same time he was capable of deeper material, and his versions of "Lost Lover Blues" or "Mamie" are as deep as most Delta blues. Because of his popularity, he may have been overexposed on records, yet most of his songs remained close to tradition and much of his repertoire and style is kept alive by North Carolina and Virginia artists today. The location of the final resting place of Blind Boy Fuller is on private property in Durham, North Carolina. State records indicate that this was once an official cemetery, and Fuller's interment is recorded. The only remaining headstone is not that of Blind Boy Fuller. On July 16, 2001, the City of Durham recognized the career and significance of Blind Boy Fuller. (d.13/2/1941) (mn-rs-wickpedia)
2010 Sugar Minott dies. Reggae and dancehall pioneer Sugar Minott died Saturday at a hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, after suffering from a heart-related ailment. He was 54. Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott loved the music he helped create: When he'd perform, he'd shake his shoulders, bug out his eyes and then shut them tight with the music. When he smiled, which was often, an adorable gap would peek out between his teeth. Minott's first album, Live Loving, came out in 1978. It's credited by many as the first dancehall album in Jamaica, and its influence on Jamaican music — and, by extension, American hip-hop — is massive. Minott started his own label, Black Roots, and shaped the reggae, ragga and dub music scenes as the sound of dancehall evolved in the 1980s. (big john)
1973 Bahamas receives Independence.
1875 Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, born. She ranks high among the great women of America. Her life story is one of ennobling rise from a field hand picking cotton to position of confident and friend of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt. Almost single-handedly she built the Bethune-Cookman College. Her life-long achievents were recognized by the US Nation in 1974 when Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. This bronze monument was the first statue of a woman and of an African-Ameican to be erected on a national park ground in the nation's capital. (Hear BHPAP 100) (mm-ra-tr-iokts)
1943 Arthur Ashe, first black Wimbledon champion born.In 1965, Ashe won the individual NCAA championship. He was also a chief contributor in UCLA's winning the team NCAA championship in the same year. While at UCLA, Ashe was initiated as a member of the Upsilon chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. With this successful college career behind him, Ashe quickly ascended to the upper echelon of tennis players worldwide after turning professional in 1969. By 1969, most people considered Ashe to be the best American male tennis player. He had won the inaugural US Open in 1968, and had aided the US Davis Cup team to victory that same year. Concerned that tennis pros were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe was one of the key figures behind the formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). That year would prove even more momentous for Ashe, when he was denied a visa by the South African government, thereby keeping him out of the South African Open. Ashe chose to use this denial to publicize South Africa's apartheid policies. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit. In 1970, he added a second Grand Slam title to his resume by winning the Australian Open. In 1975, after several years of lower levels of success, Ashe played his best season ever by winning Wimbledon, unexpectedly defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He remains the only black player ever to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open, and one of only two black men to win a Grand Slam singles event (the other being France's Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983). He would play for several more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, Ashe retired in 1980. (dies 1993) (jc-wickpedia)
1972 Lovie Austin, bandleader/composer/session musician dies. Lovie Austin was a popular and colorful figure of the 1920s Chicago Jazz and Blues scene. She was often seen racing around town in her Stutz Bearcat with leopard skin upholstery dressed to the teeth. Her early career was in vaudeville where she played piano and performed in variety acts. She led a couple of acts on the T.O.B.A. circuit including her own Blues Serenaders. Throughout the 1920s she was the musical director at the Monogram Theatre at 3453 South State Street in Chicago where all the T.O.B.A. acts played. Lovie Austin is best remembered today for her recording career. Her Blues Serenaders accompanied many of the Classic Blues singers of the 1920s, including Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Ethel Waters. Lovie Austin's song "Down Hearted Blues" was a big hit for Bessie Smith. (mn-sr-redhotjazz)
1976 Barbara Jordan is the first woman to make a keynote speech at Democratic Convention. In 1966 she was the first African-American to be elected to the state senate since 1883. Ill health forced her to resign from politics in 1978, and now she is a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. (tr-bl-ss)
11th. JULY
OMAR MORRIS - CECIL'S SON BORN
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 050: GARRETT A. MORGAN (1875-1963)
President's Day-Republic of Botswana.
1596 First deportation of U.K. Negroes. Queen Elizabeth I ordered that blackamoors (black people), should be handed over to a German slave-trader in return for 89 English prisoners abroad. (mn-pf)
1905 Niagra Movement founded by WEB DeBois. (jc)
1915 Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, first African American to be elected a municiple judge, dies. By Tom W Dillard 'Little Rock', The church bells were ringing when Mifflin Wistar Gibbs crossed the Arkansas River into Little Rock one bright Sunday morning in May 1871 (1). The forty-eight-year-old black immigrant from Oberlin, Ohio, was quite unlike the hordes of former slaves that poured into Arkansas's capital city after the Civil War. He was well-educated, and spoke a stilted, purposefully flowery English, a product no doubt of his extensive reading in the classics and his long association with Canadians. But, above all, he was wealthy, at least by mid-nineteenth century Arkansas standards. That bright Sunday morning is an important date in Arkansas black history, for the arrival of Gibbs provided the state's blacks with an able leader, a skilled politician, and, on more than one occasion, a defender from the white majority. His life up until the move to Arkansas had been a combination of accomplishments that resulted in a truly unique individual. (tr-iokts)
1931 Thurston Harris, singer born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. (d. 1990 California). Best remembered for his 1957 US Top 10 hit Little Bitty Pretty One, this irresistible slice of tongue-in-cheek R&B reached the Top 10 in both US R&B and pop charts and was later immortalised by British beat groups who covered it in the 60's. (mn-cl)
1951 Bonnie Pointer soul singer with the Pointer Sisters born.Versatile Ruth, Anita, June, and Bonnie Pointer regularly scored pop and soul hits throughout the '70s and '80s in a chameleonic variety of styles. Formed in Oakland, with their first successes for Blue Thumb Records blending funky rhythms with a novel nostalgic attitude (beginning with their 1973 revival of Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can"), leading up to their first number one R&B item in 1975, "How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side)." Bonnie signed with Motown in 1978 and kicked off her own string of R&B hits with "Free Me From My Freedom/Tie Me to a Tree (Handcuff Me)." (June and Anita also tried the solo route during the '80s, without leaving the fold.) By 1979, when the remaining trio covered Bruce Springsteen's "Fire," the Pointers were headed in a more contemporary direction on the Planet label, and "He's So Shy" (1980), "Slow Hand" (1981), "Automatic," and the anthemic "Jump (For My Love)" (the last two both 1984) were savvy ditties that blazed trails across the R&B and pop charts. However, the group's success declined during the late '80s, as their records began to sound more formulaic. The Pointer Sisters lost their major-label record contract in the early '90s, and the group began performing on oldies circuits occasionally. In 1995, the trio made a tentative return to the spotlight when they joined a revival performance of the Fats Waller musical Ain't Misbehavin', yet the accompanying soundtrack album failed to gain much attention. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide (mn-jt)
1953 Peter Brown soul singer born. Peter Brown first came to fame with the first million-selling 12" dance single, "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me." Brown was a pioneer in home recording, having recorded his seminal hit in his bedroom. (His '70s-era home recording studio is pictured on the cover of Westside/DNA's Get Funky With Me: The Best of the TK Years.) He also co-wrote Madonna's 1985 pop hit, "Material Girl," with Peter Rans. Born July 11, 1953 in Blue Island, IL, Brown, started playing drums in his teens and later began experimenting with his four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder in his bedroom studio. The singer/keyboardist/producer was signed to Drive Records, a subsidiary of Henry Stone's TK Records. His first album for the label, A Fantasy Love Affair, was produced by Cory Wade, who had helped Brown get the record deal. The percolating "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me" went to number three R&B, number 18 pop on Billboard's charts in summer 1977. Another Drive LP, Stargazer yielded "Crank It Up (Funk Town), Pt. 1." His 1983 RCA LP, Back to the Front included the charting single, "Baby Gets High." Brown's 1984 Columbia LP, Snap included the sly rock/dance classic "Zie Zie Won't Dance," the dub reggae-sounding "Hot Flash," the driving, swirling horn-laced "Electric Shoes," the dream-like "Double or Nothing," and the pumping single, "They Only Come Out At Night." In September 1999, Brown's Chasing Fireflies was released by Orchard and in November 1999, UK label Resurgence issued Brown's Party in the Rain CD. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide (mn-jt)
1964 Craig Charles (uk actor/poet/presenter) born. (nationmaster)
1966 Mel Appleby soul singer with Mel & Kim born. Sisters Melanie (d. January 18, 1990) and Kim Appleby (born August 28, 1961) were noticed dancing in a nightclub in their native London and signed to a recording contract with Supreme Records under the guidance of production team Stock Aitken Waterman in 1985, and began releasing records under the name of Mel & Kim. "Mel and Kim" (1986) Mel & Kim in the video for their debut 1986 hit single "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)"."System" was intended as their first single, but they and the producers were unhappy with it, and it became the "B-side" of their first single "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)" which reached number three on the British charts and became a minor hit in the USA. Their next single "Respectable" reached number one in Britain and became one of the year's biggest hits. They became well known celebrities, particularly in Britain, and were known for their visual style which combined urban street wear with high fashion; prior to their music career Mel had worked as a fashion model. Subsequent hits followed, but the sisters were eclipsed by two new Stock Aitken Waterman acts, Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, who became the production team's major focus in 1988. Mel, a former glamour model, began to withdraw from publicity in mid 1987 (the videos for "FLM" and "That's the Way It Is" comprised of collages of older footage), claiming to have suffered a debilitating back injury. While the media speculated that she was terminally ill, both sisters categorically denied this. Mel was suffering from cancer of the spine, after having previously undergone surgery for a tumour on her liver in December 1985, prior to the duo's rise to fame. She died of pneumonia, her immune system weakened by chemotherapy. With the aid of her boyfriend, ex-Bros bassist Craig Logan, Kim launched a solo career with much of her debut solo album comprised of songs cowritten with Mel, for what was intended to be the next "Mel and Kim" album. Her debut single "Don't Worry" reached number two on the British charts in November 1990. Her popularity quickly faded and by the end of 1991 her career as a pop star was over. (mn-jt-wickpedia)
1997 A petition of 5,500 signatures from Birmingham people handed to the Home Office demanding a Public Inquiry in support of justice for The Alton Manning Campaign. (mn)
2006 Henry E. Cheaney Historian dies at 94; collected data on African Americans. Henry E. Cheaney, a retired Kentucky State University history professor who collected much of the research for the first in-depth history of African Americans in the state. He died at the Frankfort Regional Medical Center after an illness. On May 17, 1979, the 25th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Kentucky Historical Society announced that Cheaney and Marion Lucas, a professor at Western Kentucky University, would together write "A History of Blacks in Kentucky." But Cheaney's "eyesight began fading and he couldn't continue to write," his wife, Ora-Mae, said in an interview yesterday evening. For years, he had collected information from interviews, newspapers, libraries, archives and churches in even the most rural areas in the state. Though Cheaney's name never appeared on the title page, Lucas dedicated his half of the book -- which covers slavery to segregation -- to Cheaney on the copyright page. Cheaney gave all of his notecards and other research to George C. Wright, who compiled the second volume of the book. That volume covers the years after segregation up to 1980, Ora-Mae Cheaney said. Cheaney was a native of Henderson whose interest in history began in high school, where he wrote for the school newspaper. And it was in high school that Cheaney predicted he would become a professor at Kentucky State College, now a university, his wife said. He graduated from Kentucky State in 1936. Just before commencement, "the president called him in and asked him if he had any (job) offers," his wife said. He was immediately hired to teach English, and he also wrote press releases and coached debate and boxing at the college. He later started teaching history and earned a master's degree in that field in 1941 after five summer sessions at the University of Michigan. He spent two years in the Navy in World War II, then earned a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago in 1961. In the days of segregated high schools, Cheaney was one of the state's most widely sought commencement speakers. His familiarity with black school officials, teachers and parents was a major reason many young African Americans attended KSU, according to a 1982 Courier-Journal story. Although he received job offers from larger schools, he decided to remain at KSU until his retirement at the end of the 1981-82 school year, he told the newspaper. "After you do that sort of thing, you have a sort of dedication, and I wanted to serve those people. They made me glad I was here," he said. (kentucky courier journal)
2008 Kae Williams singer with Breakwater dies. b. Kae Williams Jr.(a.k.a. Ulysses Kae Williams Jr.), 7th March 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. d. 11th July 2008, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Kae Williams Jnr, founder of the group Breakwater, has died. He was 52. Breakwater signed to the Arista imprint and released two albums. The first album, 'Breakwater' (1978), included 'Work It Out', 'You Know I Love You', 'No Limit' and 'Feel Your Way'. Two years later, 'Splashdown' (1980) was the bands second album, which included 'Say You Love Me Girl', produced by Kae Williams and Rick Chertoff. The group split up after leaving Arista. Kae Williams became a freelance pianist, songwriter and producer. 'Say You Love Me Girl' was issued in the U.K. for the first time in 1986. Following Breakwater, Kae moved to New York and took up session work, an early project being 'Rescue Me' for Sybil Thomas. He also met Jacques Fred Petrus who offered him session keyboard work with Change, The Richie Family (co-writing 'I'll Do My Best For You') and B.B.& Q. (writing 'Imagination'). In 1981 he joined Timmy Allen from the group Change and other top session players to record an album as Hi-Gloss (including 'You'll Never Know') for the Prelude label. He also wrote, arranged and produced all the songs on 'B.B.& Q.' ('Genie'), albums for Mason ('Mason'), and then half a solo album for Curtis Hairston, 'Curtis Hairston' (1986) who sang lead. He then moved back to Philadelphia where to date he has worked with artists including Mason, lan Foster, the late Phyllis Hyman, the late George Howard, Miki Howard and other local acts. Kae's father was Ulysses Kae Williams (1921-1987). He wrote 'Get A Job' for the group The Silhouettes. Kae's family are, daughter, Renee Lovett; sons, Kae, III and Curtis Hartley, Jr. and a host of other loving relatives and many special friends. (soulwalking.co.uk)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 051: MARTIN R. DELANY (1812-1885)
1864 George Washington Carver is born. One of the best known agricultural scientists of his generation, Carver was born into slavery near Diamond Grove, Missouri. Slave traders kidnapped Carver & his mother when he was a six-week old infant. Carvers mother was never recovered, but his owner allegedly ransomed back the infant with a $300 dollar race horse. As a scientist he produced over 300 derivative products from the peanut & 118 from the sweet potato. (mn)
1938 William Bill Cosby, Ed.D., entertainer/educator/humanitarian is born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA. One of the best known, most challenging - and highest paid - entertainers in the world. (mn-ss)
1942 Jerry Williams Jnr./Swamp Dogg soul singer/producer born. His first album Total Destruction of the Mind, has become a soul classic, incorporating the sound of early Stax recordings with the rock style of the late 60's and early 70's. (mn-jt-cl)
1948 Lyn Collins soul singer born in Abilene, Texas, USA. Lyn worked with James Brown in the early 70's, and her Think (about It) is much sort after on the UK Rare Groove scene. Dies 2005 see other date (some books say 12/6/48) (mn)
1949 Black Invention: Air Conditioning Unit, Fredrick M. Jones. (sc)
1952 Liz Mitchell singer with Boney M born. "Rivers of Babylon", with lyrics partially based on Psalm 137, became the second highest selling single of all time in the UK in 1978. After Rivers of Babylon slipped back down the chart, the B-side "Brown Girl in the Ring" was given extensive airplay on radio and the single climbed back up the chart to #2. It eventually sold 500 copies short of 2 million. The group also achieved a second UK million seller with their version of the calypso classic "Mary's Boy Child/O My Lord" which was previously a million seller for Harry Belafonte. On a list of the best selling singles in the United Kingdom, issued in 2001, Boney M appear fifth and tenth places respectively, with the two above singles. They are the only act to appear twice in the Top 10; a feat not even the Beatles were able to achieve. Boney M, with their sensuous tunes and catchy rhythms, became one of the few western bands at that time which became well-known outside of the West, including Africa and Asia. To this day, along with ABBA, they are among the most widely known 70's western music acts in these regions. (mn-jt-wickpedia)
1979 Minnie Ripperton soul singer dies. A former singer with the Gems, Ripperton recorded under the name Andrea Davis prior to joining Rotery Connection. In 1973 the singer began working with Wonderlove, Stevie Wonder's backing group. Two years later he produced her Perfect Angel album which contained her hit single Loving You. With the Gems, I'll Be There remains a Northern Soul classic. (mn-cl)
1996 Nelson Mandela does a walk-about in Brixton, London. (mn)
1997 Lennox Lewis retains the WBC heavyweight title when challenger Henry Akinwande disqualified in the fifth round for excessive holding in a bout held in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA. (mn-ring)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 052: MATTHEW A. HENSON (1866-1955)
1787 Congress outlaws slavery in Northwest Territory, U.S.A.
1928 Robert N. C. Nix Jr., is the first African American chief justice of a state supreme court, is born. Former Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr. was the first African American to be elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania. He served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania for 24 years, 12 as chief justice, and was a prominent figure in Pennsylvania law and public service for more than three decades. (tr-iokts-wickpedia)
1965 Thurgood Marshall appointed first black solictor general of the US. (jc)
1985 Feed The World at Wembley U.K./JFK Stadium Philadelphia 18 hrs of music raising money for Ethiopia. Live music with Lionell Ritchie, Prince, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Dionne Warwick. (mn-jt)
1985 Arthur Ashe is inducted into the International Tennis Hall Of Fame. (jc)
1993 Eddie Boyd, blues singer dies. He had two No. 3 singles on the R&B charts in 1953 with "24 Hours" and "3rd Degree". Born Edward Riley Boyd, 25 November 1914, Stovall, Mississippi, USA, died in Helsinki, Finland. Boyd was a half-brother of Memphis Slim and a cousin of Muddy Waters. He spent his early years on Stovall's Plantation but ran away after a dispute with an overseer. Self-taught on guitar and piano, he worked around the south during the 30s, as both "Little Eddie" and "Ernie" Boyd, from a base in Memphis, before settling in Chicago where he worked in a steel-mill. He was active in music, performing with Waters, Johnny Shines and John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson before he had his first big hit under his own name with "Five Long Years", on the Job label in 1952. He recorded extensively for Chess Records, having successes with "24 Hours" and "3rd Degree". He journeyed to Europe during the "Blues Boom" of the 60s and, considering himself too assertive to live comfortably in the USA, took up residence first in Paris and later in Finland. During this period he appeared with artists as diverse as Buddy Guy and John Mayall and recorded in England, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, France and Finland. His 1967 album on Decca, produced by Mike Vernon, features some of the cream of the British blues movement; Mayall, Peter Green, John McVie, Tony McPhee and Aynsley Dunbar. His piano-playing was steadily functional rather than spectacular and his main strength was his ability to put together lyrics that were pithy and acidic. "Five Long Years" has become a blues standard and features in the repertoires of many singers including Waters and BornBorn King. (mn-bd-music.us)
2006 Milan Williams The Commodores founder lost his battle with cancer at the age of 58. The soul man, who played keyboards for the band, died in a Houston, Texas hospital. Williams wrote "Machine Gun," the Commodores' first hit for Motown in 1974 and enjoyed the band's heyday throughout the 1970s. The keyboard player stayed with the group when frontman Lionel Richie quit to follow a solo career in the early 1980s. A memorial service for Williams is being planned in Los Angeles in August. (soulglow)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT:053: GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER (1864-1943)
1891 Black Invention: refrigerator, J. Standard is awarded patent. Specifications of Patent are as follows: This invention relates to improvements in refrigerators; and it consists of certain novel arrangements and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter more fully described, and final led embodied in the clauses of the claim. PDF version U.S. Patent 455,891 (130K), p.958-959. (aared)
1932 Benjamin Karim was born. He was an African-American Muslim minister, author, orator, and aide to Malcolm X. Born Benjamin Goodman, he was from Suffolk, Virginia and was the son of Wilbur Bryant and Mary Goodman. Young Goodman was also a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean War. After the military, Goodman was working as a recording engineer with a record company when he first heard Malcolm X speak. This was in 1957, and his experience caused him to convert to the Nation of Islam (NOI), cease many secular activities, change his diet and become sober. A serious student of African and African American history, Karim re-educated himself and over the next seven years became one of the closest aides to Malcolm X. He adopted the name Benjamin 2X, supervised an educational program at the NOI temple in Harlem and stood in for Malcolm X at some events held around the United States. He was the man who introduced Malcolm X to the audience in the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965, the day of his assassination. Karim was involved in civil rights, and instrumental in heightening the awareness of all people. Benjamin Goodman Karim, 73, died on August 2, 2005. He was married to Linda Karim and had five children; sons Tariq, Zaid, Jamal and Jahlil and daughters, Asia and Khadya and 15 grandchildren. (aareg)
1941 Assata Shakur activist born. She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled the country. In 1987, she published her first book, Assata Shakur: An Autobiography. Shakur had been missing for eight years at which time she established her whereabouts in Cuba, where she was granted political asylum. The U.S. government, under the lead of New Jersey governor Whitman, is actively trying to extradite Shakur on charges of killing the state trooper. In the book, she tells her side of the story, describing her upbringing, her reasoning for becoming a revolutionary, and the events before, during, and after the shooting. The book also has many poems written by Shakur. Although now in Cuba, she is still an active voice in the struggle for equal rights in America. (aareg)
1951 George Washington Carver National Monument, first national park honouring an African American, is dedicated in Joplin, Mo, USA. One of the best known agricultural scientists of his generation, Carver was born into slavery near Diamond Grove, Missouri. Slave traders kidnapped Carver & his mother when he was a six-week old infant. Carvers mother was never recovered, but his owner allegedly ransomed back the infant with a $300 dollar race horse. As a scientist he produced over 300 derivative products from the peanut & 118 from the sweet potato. (mn-tr-iokts)
1979 Janet Kay, reggae singer reaches No. 2 with Silly Games. She is the first black British female artist to have a reggae hit on BBC's Top Of The Pops television program. (mn)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 054: DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS (1858-1931)
1779 Pompey Lamb, noted spy, aids the American Revolution War effort. (jc)
1822 Public schools for African-Americans open in Philadelphia. (jc)
1914 Marcus Garvey returns to Jamaica. (tr)
1929 Frances Bebey, guitarist, author, born in Douala, Cameroon.
1944 Millie Jackson, soul singer/songwriter is born in Thompson near Augusta, Georgia, USA. Real name is Mildred Jackson and was a model in New York until singing with a live band for a bet in 1964. Millie Jackson possesses one of soul's outstanding voices, yet sadly chooses to limit its obvious potential in favour of her trademark lewd rapping. Nearly all of Jackson's Spring albums saw CD release in the 90s on the UK Ace's Southbound label. (mn)
1952 Singer Gladys Knight wins $2000 (£1000) prize and a gold cup at the age of 8 for singing Too Young on US TV's Ted Mack's Amateur Hour. (mn-jt)
1970 James McGhee becomes the first African American mayor of Dayton, Ohio, USA. (tr-iokts)
1972 Buju Banton born Mark Myrie on this day at 127a Barbican Road, Kingston Jamaica. At the start of the 90's, there was no more vivid example of the sheer, dumb nihilism that epitomized dancehall reggae than Bugu Banton. Boom Bye Bye controversy of a few years ago - the record appeared to endorse the shooting of homosexuals - was just the tip of a deeply unpleasant iceberg as the deejay attitudes towards society in general was strong. But meet Buju today and he is a perfect role model for how dancehall reggae can have a sense of purpose. (jah-b-tr-lb-mn)
1975 Danny Richard Charles Law, 6'5", 13.7 Essex cricketer born in Lambeth, London, England. County debut: 1993 (Sussex), 1997 (Essex; County cap: 1996 (Sussex). (cm-mn)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 055: ERNEST E. JUST (1883-1941)
1822 Violette A. Johnson, first African American woman to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, is born. (tr-iokts)
1862 Ida B. Wells, reformer who gathered the first statistical records on lynching in the U.S., born. After emancipation she attended Rust Collage and was fired in 1891 from her teaching post in Memphis, Tennessee, due to her outspoken criticism of segregation in the schools. She became editor and part-owner of a Memphis newspaper, for which she wrote anti-lynching articles. She moved to the Northwest when her writing work provoked threats and continued as a strong anti-lynching activist. She was secretary of the National Afro-American Council from 1898-1902 and one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(1910).(mn-ss)
1939 William Bell soul singer born William Yarborough in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He started his music career in 1957 as part of the Del Rios, he emerged on the fledgling Stax label with Don't Miss Your Water (1961), a cornerstone in the development of country R&B.(mn-cl)
1939 Denise La Salle soul singer born in Le Flore County, Mississippi, USA. Having moved to Chicago in 1954 to pursue a her career as a fiction writer, she turned to song writing and by the late 60's had begun to record for Billy "the Kid" Emerson's Tarpon label, "A Love Reputation" (1967) was a sizeable local hit. LaSalle' most recent hit was "My Toot Toot" a novelty hit in 1985. (mn-jt-cl)
1941 Desmond Dekker reggae singer born Desmond Dacres on this day in Kingston Jamaica. His late 60's hits were folk tales of ghetto life from both sides of the law: 007 (Shanty Town) was a rudie anthem, as were his domestic Rudie Got Soul and Rude Boy Train; while The Israelites and Problems concerned themselves with everyday pressures on those trying to make an honest living. (mn-rj-lb)
1972 William Smokey Robinson plays final date before his splits with Miracles group, who were formed in 1954 as the Matadors. (mn-jt)
1998 John Henrik Clarke after a long period of illness, the great Pan-Africanise historian, scholar and teacher died in New York, USA. Dr. Clarke was born to a family of sharecroppers in Alabama, in 1915. He will be remembered as a teacher and lecturer travelled all over the world, and was a prolific writer of books. (mm-A1)
2012 Bob Babbitt dies. (born Robert Kreinar; November 26, 1937) Played on over 200 Motown recordings, Funk Brother member. Brain tumour. (br)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 056: ULYSSES GRANT DAILEY (1885-1961)
1888 Black Invention: Tunnel Construction for Electric Railways, Granville T. Woods. (sc)
1911 Frank Snowden, foremost scholar on African Americans in ancient history, is born in York County, Va, USA. (tr-iokts)
1935 Diahann Carroll, born Carol Dianna Johnson singer/actress in the Bronx, New York. A versatile show business personality, she began her career as a nightclub singer and model. In the the 1950's she began working in films and appeared on Broadway in the House of Flowers (1954) and was featured in a movie I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in 1979. Her appearances in Julia made her the first African-American woman to star in her own TV series. (mn-ss)
1950 Damon Harris soul singer born in Baltimore, USA. Joined The Temptations in July 1971, he had previously sang with The Vandals and The Tempos. He made special 2 hour programme for PCRL in 1994. (ref: MD910/911 ) He left The Temptations in the 1975. He also played his Top-10 favorite hits in a later program on PCRL. He has more recently been troubled with prostrate cancer. "As a prostate cancer survivor, it is of particular importance to me that greater attention be focused on the seriousness of this health problem. As an African American, I know only too well how critical it is for us to take advantage of prostate cancer screenings, to have digital rectal exams and PSA tests starting at age 40, and learn everything we can about this insidious disease. Together, we can make a difference. Please join me in fighting prostate cancer with information, a check up, and a check.” Damon Harris, 2001 Founder and CEO of DHCF visit: dhcancerfoundation.com (mn-br)
1953 Jesse D. Locker appointed U.S. Ambassador to Liberia.
1959 Billie Holiday, Lady Day, jazz singer dies at 3:10 a.m. quietly in a New York hospital. The result of many years of narcotic addition and alcoholism she had slid into a coma. Billie Holiday's use of tonal variation and vibrato, her skill at jazz phrasing, and her unique approach to the lyrics of popular songs, were but some of the elements in the work of a truly original artist. Her clear diction, methods of manipulating pitch, improvising on a theme, the variety of emotional moods ranging from the joyously optimistic, flirtatious even, to the tough, defiant, proud, disillusioned and buoyantly barrelhouse, were not plucked out of the air, acquired without practice. Holiday paid her dues in a demanding milieu. That she survived at all is incredible; that she should become the greatest jazz singer there has ever been - virtually without predecessor or successor - borders on the miraculous. Today she is revered beyond her wildest imaginings in places which, in her lifetime, greeted her with painfully closed doors. Sadly, she would not have been surprised. As she wrote in her autobiography: "There's no damn business like show business. You had to smile to keep from throwing up". Any new student coming to popular music or Jazz will at some point be directed to the work of Holiday. Unquestionably they will be moved and probably they will be amazed. (mn-jt-music.us)
1963 Regina Bell, singer, born, Inglewood, NJ, USA. Regina Belle emerged as a prolific, consistently engaging vocalist on the urban contemporary scene. Born in New Jersey, Belle's early experience was in gospel, though she was also attracted to R&B during her childhood. She studied trombone, tuba, and steel drums, and at 12 won a school contest singing the Emotions' "Don't Ask My Neighbors." Belle sang in a New Jersey vocal group, and studied opera and jazz in college. New York disc jockey Vaughn Harper introduced her to the Manhattans, and she began working as their opening act. Belle recorded a duet with them, "Where Did We Go Wrong," that was produced by Bobby Womack in 1986. She earned a solo Columbia contract in 1987, and the single "Please Be Mine" earned both praise and a number two R&B hit. A follow-up single, "So Many Tears," also made the R&B Top 20, and the hit "Without You," pairing her with Peabo Bryson, was the only memorable thing about the film Leonard, Part 6. Her second LP, Stay with Me, secured her success, and she went on to earn more acclaim. Releasing Passion in 1993, she returned five years later with Believe in Me, which was followed by 2001's This Is Regina! and 2004's Lazy Afternoon. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide (mn-fp-vh1.com)
1967 John Coltrane dies. Since his death the most influential and imitated tenor saxophonist in jazz, born in Hamlet, North Carolina, and received his formal music training in Philadelphia. Influenced by Charlie Parker, he worked as a journey man with many jazz masters. Following his acclaimed Giant Steps and Favourite Things albums in 1960 he began leading his own groups, touring constantly until his death today of liver cancer. (mn-ss)
1998 A fund raising dance was held at the Albert Hall, Aston, Birmingham to pay for hospital equipment (that had been donated by PCRL listeners) to be sent to Port Antonio Hospital in Jamaica after a land-slide in the January floods had devastated the area. (mn)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 057: CHARLES DREW (1904-1950)
1753 Lemuel Hayes, first African-American to serve as a minister to a White congregation, born. (jc)
1899 Black Invention: Folding Bed, L.C.Bailey. (sc)
1905 Black Invention: railway brakes, Granville T. Woods receives a patent.
1918 Nelson Mandela is born Rolihahla Dalibunga Madiba Mandela to the royal Xhosa blood in the Transkei district of South Africa. His father had four wives and nine children, whom he raised in the modest Xhosa grass houses. As a child he spent hours listening to tribal elders recount the history of thier ancesters and the battles they fought against European invaders. Died aged 95 in 2013. (mn)
1929 Screamin' Jay Hawkins, born in Cleavland, Ohio, USA. Reportedly raised in Cleveland by a tribe of Blackfoot Indians, young Jalacy became interested in music at an early age, teaching himself piano at the age of six and, having mastered the keyboard, he then learned to play saxophone in his early teens. Hawkins was also an adept young boxer, winning an amateur Golden Gloves contest and becoming Middleweight Champion of Alaska in 1949. He judged music to be the easier option, and became a professional musician, playing piano with artists such as Gene Ammons, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, James Moody, Lynn Hope, and on one occasion, Count Basie. Best remembered for 'I Put A Spell On You'. (mn-cl)
1941 Martha Reeves singer born in Eufaula, Alabama, USA. Started at Motown Records as a secretary, but soon had eight hit records as Martha & Vandellas between 1963-71. Reeves was schooled in both gospel and classical music, but it was vocal group R&B that caught her imagination. She began performing in the late 50s under the name Martha Lavaille, briefly joining the Fascinations and then the Del-Phis. In 1961 she joined the fledgling Motown organization in Detroit, where she served as secretary to William Stevenson in the A&R department. Her other duties included supervising Little Stevie Wonder during office hours, and singing occasional backing vocals on recording sessions. Impressed by the power and flexibility of her voice, Berry Gordy offered her the chance to record for the label. She reassembled the Del-Phis quartet as the Vels for a single in 1962, and later that year she led the group on their debut release under a new name, Martha And The Vandellas. From 1963 onwards, they became one of Motown's most successful recording outfits, and Reeves' strident vocals were showcased on classic hits such as "Heat Wave", "Dancing In The Street" and "Nowhere To Run". She was given individual credit in front of the group from 1967 onwards, but their career was interrupted the following year when she was taken seriously ill, and had to retire from performing. Fully recovered, Reeves emerged in 1970 with a new line-up of Vandellas. After two years of episodic success, she reacted bitterly to Motown's decision to relocate from Detroit to Hollywood, and fought a legal battle to be released from her contract. The eventual settlement entailed the loss of her use of the Vandellas' name, but left her free to sign a solo contract with MCA in 1973. Her debut album was the result of lengthy recording sessions with producer Richard Perry. It earned much critical acclaim but was commercially disappointing, failing to satisfy either rock or soul fans with its hybrid style. Moving to Arista Records in 1977, she was submerged by the late 70s disco boom on a series of albums that allowed her little room to display her talents. Her subsequent recording contracts have proved unproductive, and since the early 80s she has found consistent work on package tours featuring former Motown artists. During the late 80s she toured with a "fake" Vandellas before being reunited with the original group (Annette Sterling and Rosalind Holmes) on Ian Levine's Motor City label. They released "Step Into My Shoes" in 1989 while ex-Vandella Lois Reeves also recorded for Levine's label. In 1990 Martha recorded a two hour long programme for PCRL. (ref: tapes 8/9) (mn-br-music.us)
1964 Race Riots, New York's Harlem (1 killed, 150 injured, 500 arrested), rioting soon spreads to Brooklyn, New Jersey and Chicago. (mn)
1975 Bob Marley records live album at The Lyceum Ballroom, London. (mn-jt)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 058: PERCY JULIAN (1899-1975)
1895 Butterbeans & Susie, vaudeville duo, Butterbeans born, Jody Edwards. (Died October 28, 1967. (mn-rs)
1922 Rachel Robinson social activist born. Wife to base ball legent Jackie Robinson. (tr-bl)
1925 Josephine Baker, entertainer, is greatly applauded at her Paris debut. She was stranded in Paris after her failed La Revue Negre, she appeared in an all-black act the Follies Berg' ere and rose to instantaneous stardom on the wave of French enthusiasm for jazz and everything associated with it. Performing topless on a mirror wearing only a g-string of fake bananas or walking a leashed leopard on the Champs Elysees, Baker cultivated a partly comedic, inhibited, yet increasingly sophisticated image built on her lively dancing, scat singing, and infectious energetic manor. (mn-ss)
1932 Buster Benton, journeyman singer-guitarist, born, Texarkana, Ark, USA. Blues vocals/guitar, b. Texarkana, AR, USA. Benton began playing the blues during the mid-1950s while living in Toledo, OH. By 1959, he was leading his own band in Chicago. During the 1960s, he cut a series of 'Soul' singles for local labels (Melloway, Alteen, Sonic, and Twinight) before joining up with Willie Dixon in 1971. Benton was briefly a member of 'Dixon's Blues All-Stars' (Dixon is credited as songwriter of Benton's biggest hit, the slow blues "Spider in My Stew"). He followed that with another hit, "Money Is the Name of the Game". During his career, Benton had to face extreme physical adversity. Aroound 1983, he lost part of a leg, and a decade later, in 1993, a portion of his right leg was amputated due to poor circulation. He was on kidney dialysis for the last few years of his life as a result of diabetes (info.net)
1940 "Little" Freddie King, Blues vocals, b. McComb, MS, USA. "Little" Freddie is the cousin of Lightnin' Hopkins. His daytime job is at an auto repair shop, and at night he plays music at local bars. He doesn't own car, and rides his bicycle to work from the poorer part of town where he lives with his wife. His body carries the scars of the five bullets it has taken. Through it all, King has remained true to the familiar Southern blues he grew up with. (info.net)
1941 Phil Upchurch session guitarist, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Best remembered for his hit You Can't Sit Down (1961). Upchurch began playing in R&B backing bands, including those of The Kool Gents, The Dells, and The Spaniels. He eventually formed the Phil Upchurch Combo, and their song "You Can't Sit Down" reached the US Top 30 in 1961 and the UK Top 40 on its reissue five years later. The band included:Cornell Muldrow (organ) David Brooks (saxophone) Mac Johnson (trumpet) Joe Hoddrick (drums). Dee Clark used "You Can't Sit Down" as a theme song. Upchurch had his most successful collaboration with keyboardist Tennyson Stephens in the 1970s. Upchurch later appeared on albums by Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf. In the 1970s Upchurch appeared on several fusion albums, including Grover Washington, George Benson and The Crusaders. In the 1980s her appeared on Marlena Shaw's "Could It Be You". He has also collaborated with Chaka Khan, Booker T. Jones, Leroy Hutson and Michael Jackson. Upchurch received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1997. (mn-cl-)
1949 Carolyn Crawford [aka Caroline Crawford], soul singer born. Carolyn Crawford was a vocalist on Motown's Tamla label in the 1960s. She sang backup vocals for many Motown artists before releasing three singles of her own, the most successful being "My Smile Is Just a Frown Turned Upside Down." Never receiving the attention or promotion of larger acts, Crawford left Motown in 1965. She briefly returned to music as a background vocalist and occasional producer of minor disco hits in the 1970s. Today, both her singles and unreleased session material are popular on bootlegged Motown and soul compilations. Discography: Singles "Forget About Me" (1963), "My Smile Is Just a Frown Turned Upside Down" (1964) R&B: #39 "When Someone's Good to You" (1964), She records a 2 hour programme for PCRL in the late-90's. (mn-br)
1957 Althea Gibson wins Women's Singles Championship at Wimbledon. (jc)
1958 The manager of the Drifters George Tredwell, sacked the entire group and hired the then hardly known Ben E. King and his group the Five Crowns, as their replacements! (mn-jt)
1972 David Lindon Lammy born, is a British politician who has been tipped as "Britain's first Black Prime Minister" Lammy was born in Tottenham, a working-class area of North London, and brought up by his mother after his father left the family. He won an Inner London Education Authority choral scholarship to The King's School, Peterborough and studied for a degree in law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and then took a Masters degree at Harvard Law School, the first Black Briton to do so. In 2000, he was elected as a Labour candidate on the London-wide list to the London Assembly. However, the sitting Member of Parliament for Tottenham Bernie Grant died during the campaign, and Lammy was selected to follow him. He retained the seat, on a low turnout, in a by-election held on June 22, 2000, becoming the youngest MP. He was promoted to the government in 2002 and served at the Department for Constitutional Affairs from 2003 to 2005. Following the 2005 General Election, Lammy was appointed as Minister for Culture under Tessa Jowell at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Lammy has stated in speeches and articles that his vision for the arts in the UK is to move towards participation for all. In February 2006 he criticised the Arts Council of England leading to a conflict with its chairman. (nationmaster)
1979 In her second Cabinet-level appointment, Patricia Roberts Harris is named secetary of heath and human services. (tr-iokts)
1989 James Brown was moved from a minimum security prison to medium security jail after a large amount of money was found in his cell. (mn-jt)
1993 "Red" Prysock, tenor sax, died in Chicago, IL, USA. Age: 67, Red Prysock (1926-1993) was an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist. After playing with Tiny Bradshaw's band (he played the lead sax solo on Bradshaw's big hit "Soft"), he signed with Mercury records as a bandleader, and had his first hit R&B instrumental, "Wiggles," in 1954. In 1955 he joined the band that played at Alan Freed's stage shows, and had his biggest hit for Mercury, the rhythm and blues instrumental classic "Hand Clappin'. He played on several hit records by his brother, the singer Arthur Prysock, in the 1960s. (wickpedia)
2000 H. Le Baron Taylor, one of the foremost black record industry executives, died from a cardiac arrest, aged 65. Taylor was co-owner of Golden World Records and later worked closely with many prominent black originations, most notably the NAACP, and had received numerous awards for public service, including those from Operation PUSH, the National Urban League, the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre for Non-Violent Social Change, the National Council of Negro Women and the NAACP Image Committee. (mn-i-t-b/20)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 059: THEODORE K. LAWLESS (1892-1971)
1938 [Jo Ann Campbell], vocals, b. Jacksonville, FF, USA. Sometimes tagged as: "The Blonde Bombshell". In 1954 Jo-Ann was a dancer in a USO troup that toured Europe. Back in New York, she joined a modern jazz group called the 'Johnny Conrad Dancers' that was seen on several TV shows, including the 'Milton Berle Show', and 'The Colgate Comedy Hour', among others. She then formed a dance team ('The Haydens'), but in 1956, abandoned dancing for a career as a singer-songwriter. In 1956, after appearing at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, she was signed to Eldorado Records. That year, finding nothing suitable to record, she wrote a song titled "Come On Baby". In December 1957, after appearing with Alan Freed at the Brooklyn Paramount, Jo Ann changed record companies, and released "Wait A Minute" on 'Gone Records'. During this time, she was often on stage at the Brooklyn Paramount theatre, and on Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand Show' in Philadelphia. She also sang two songs in the movie "Go Johnny Go". In the fall of 1960, she again switched labels when she signed with ABC Records, and released "Kookie Little Paradise". (info.net)
1940 Billboard magazine published its first Top 10 best-selling singles list. (Yes. Just 10 tunes were listed. Tommy Dorsey's Orch., with Frank Sinatra's vocal on "I'll Never Smile Again" topped the list.) 1946. "Tricky" Sam Nanton, trombone, died in San Francisco, CA, USA. Age: 42 Best recalled for his work with Ellington. (info.net)
1942 Black women are accepted into the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC).
1947 Carlos Santana, Rock Guitar, b. Autlan/Tiajuana, Mexico. né: Carlos Devadip Santana. At age nine, Carlos was playing Mariachi music on violin for tourists. At age twelve, he was playing guitar in a 'strip club', joining his first band The Strangers. During his late teens, he settled in San Francisco, CA, and, in 1966, formed his own band, 'The Santana Blues Band', supplementing his income by washing dishes. Carlos finally found succes when his band appeared at the 1969 Woodstock Festival (NY). The bands 1970 album 'Abraxas' enjoyed a 40 week run on the USA top 40 charts, and also spent six weeks at the top of the UK charts. In 1991, Carlos was arrested at Houston, TX, Airport when officials found Cannabis stashed in a film canister. He received a six month deferred sentence after agreeing to perform at an anti-drugs fund-raising concert. (info.net)
1950 On this date in 1950, the first US victory in Korea was won by Black troops in the Army’s 24th Infantry Regiment. The victory happened at Yechon, where Captain Charles M. Bussey, a World War II Tuskegee Airman was the ground commander, earning a Silver Star. Two black soldiers were awarded congressional medals of honor during the Korean War: Private First Class William Thompson mortally wounded by a grenade, and Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton who died of wounds received during his heroic exploits. Both men were in the 24th Infantry. (aareg)
1967 The first National Conference of Black Power opens in Newark, N.J.,USA. (tr-iokts)
1969 Roy Hamilton soul singer dies from a stoke aged 40. Cited by Elvis Presley as one of the all time great voices. Born April 16, 1929 in Leesburg, Georgia, USA. His booming baritone voice made him a 50s hit-maker singing gospel-flavoured pop songs. In the late 40s Hamilton honed his singing skills in a church choir and as a member of it's offshoot quartet, the Searchlight Singers. He won a talent contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1947, but it was not until 1953 that he was discovered by his soon to be manager Bill Cook who was a local disc jockey. His first hit was You'll Never Walk Alone, (R&B No.1 in 1954) later a UK football anthem song. He also made the original hit with Unchained Melody (an R&B No.1 in 1955). (mn-cl)
1993 Choker Campbell, band leader/musician/producer, dies after a heart-attack in Detroit. He had been the bandleader for the motown reviews that traveled the world in the early days of motown, also had an album released on Motown and appeared and played in films. (mn-ac)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 060: JOHN B. RUSSWURM (1799-1851)
1864 The first black daily newspaper is published in French & English,'The New Orleans Tribune'.
1896 Mary Church Terrell founds the National Association of Coloured Women in Washington, D.C., USA. Her entire life was devoted to the fight for equality. A writer, lecturer, organizer, and demonstrator, Mrs. Terrell was active in the successful campaign to secure women the right to vote. She was instrumental in the campaign to desegregate the restaurants in the the US nation's capitol. (tr-iokts-mn-ra)
1951 Stanley Clarke, bassist, born in Philadelphia, USA. Clarke started on violin then transferred to cello, double bass and finally the bass guitar. After formal training at school and at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, his first experience was in funk outfits; he then got a taste for playing jazz working with Horace Silver for six months in 1970. He played with tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and with Pharoah Sanders on the latter's Black Unity. A spell with Chick Corea and his Return To Forever band reminded Clarke of his aptitude for the electric bass, and he became a pioneer of fusion as "cosmic' as it was commercial: Journey To Love (1975) had glossy production a million miles from Sanders" abrasive poly-rhythms. A partnership with George Duke, also a fugitive from acoustic jazz, provided audiences with spectacular virtuoso workouts. Gifted with jaw-dropping technique, Clarke's rise to fame coincided with a period when demonstrating "chops" was considered to be at the cutting edge of the music. His slapping style has produced a host of imitators, though none can quite match his speed and confidence. In 1995, he formed Rite Of Strings with guitarist Al Di Meola and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. (mn-cl-music.us)
1965 Mikey Spice, reggae artist born, Michael Theophilus Johnson, Jamaica. He emerged in 1995 with a myriad of single releases. His popularity spread when he recorded a version of of Barry White's 'Practice What You Preach', both a dance hall smash and a number 1 on the reggae chart. More hits followed soon after. (mn-cl)
1967 Albert J. Luthuli, political leader, receives Nobel Peace Prize. Albert John Lutuli (also known by his Zulu name "Mvumbi"; his surname is sometimes and probably more phonetically spelt "Luthuli") (1898? – 21 July 1967) was a South African teacher and politician. He was president of the African National Congress, at the time an umbrella organisation that led opposition to the white minority government in South Africa through the 1950s until his house arrest in 1958 effectively ended his direct role as head of the ANC. Lutuli was born in Southern Rhodesia. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the ANC and its fight against apartheid. (mn-wickpedia)
1991 Eight British black actors, The Posse, put on their first production.
2006 Harry Roselmack black journalist hosted the most watched evening news in France, a first in a country that has been rocked by violent protests in some of its poorest and most ethnically mixed neighbourhoods. Non-white television journalists are common in Britain and the United States but France's ethnic minorities are less visible in news media, particularly on the two flagship news shows broadcast daily at 8 p.m. and watched by millions. Harry Roselmack, 33, will fill in for presenter and national celebrity Patrick Poivre d'Arvor for the summer in a move that has been making headlines in France for weeks. 'The first news tonight on the 8 o'clock news on TF1 will be a kind of scoop: a black journalist will be presenting it,' the le Parisien newspaper said. (mn-signsonsadiago.com)
[BRIAN GOUCHER BORN - CONSORTIUM]
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 061: WILLIAM WHIPPER (1805-1885)
1899 King Sobhuza II of the Kingdom of Swaziland, longest raining monarch in the world (until 1982), born. Sobhuza II (July 22, 1899 – August 21, 1982) was a King of Swaziland. He was the son of Ngwane V. His father died on December 10, 1899, when Sobhuza was only a few months old, and his grandmother, Labotsibeni Gwamile Mdluli, acted as regent until December 22, 1921. His personal reign of over 60 years (the longest on record), saw Swaziland's independence from Britain (September 6, 1968). When the kingdom became independent, it was hoped that the existing tribal government could be modified into a constitutional monarchy. This existed for some time, until April 12, 1973, when he repealed the constitution and dissolved parliament, making himself absolute ruler. King Sobhuza continued the tribal practice of keeping many wives. According to the Swaziland National Trust Commission, "King Sobhuza II married 70 wives, who gave him 210 children between 1920 and 1970 (i.e. three children per wife, on average)." Many are still alive today. Swazi Culture. He died in 1982 and was succeeded by his young son Mswati III, after a period of regency by Queen Dzeliwe and Queen Ntombi. (wickpedia)
1937 Charles Chuck Jackson born in Winston Salem, North Carolina USA. Popular on the UK's 'Northern Soul' scene with records like 'Hand It Over' and 'These Chains Of Love' on Wand Records.singer who was one of the first artists to successfully record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He has performed with moderate success since 1961. His hits include "I Don't Want to Cry," "Any Day Now," and "I Keep Forgettin'." He was "discovered" when he opened for soul legend Jackie Wilson at the Apollo Theater. He signed a recording contract with Scepter. His first single,"I Don't Want to Cry", which he co-wrote, was his first hit (1961). The song charted on both R&B and pop charts. In 1962, Jackson's recording of "Any Day Now", the Burt Bacharach-Bob Hilliard classic, became a huge hit. In 1967, Jackson moved from Scepter to Motown Records, where he recorded a number of successful singles, including "Are You Lonely for Me" and "Honey Come Back." Several of Jackson's songs later became successful hits for other artists; Ronnie Milsap covered "Any Day Now" in 1982 and reached #1 on the Country and Adult Contemporary charts, and Michael McDonald (formerly of The Doobie Brothers) had a hit that same year with "I Keep Forgettin'." (mn-wickpedia)
1939 Jane Mathilda Bolin is first African American woman appointed as a U.S. judge. (tr-bl)
1941 George Clinton soul singer with Funkadelic and Parliament born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA.he is widely considered one of the forefathers of funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of 1981. He was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. In Plainfield, he ran a barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a doo wop group, inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. Despite initial commercial failures, The Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P-Funk). This article focuses on Clinton's solo efforts after 1981. (mn-wickpedia)
1944 Estelle Bennett soul singer with the Ronetts born. The Ronettes were an American girl group of the 1960s, best known for their work with producer Phil Spector. They consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (a.k.a. Ronnie Spector), her sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. After a hiatus in the middle of the 60s, the Ronettes (and Spector) re-emerged without much of a popular reaction; musical tastes had moved beyond the girl group sound, and the Ronettes were unable to maintain their relevance. They disbanded in 1966. Ronnie Spector married Phil Spector in 1968, then launched a solo career after divorcing him in 1973. (mn-jt)
1961 Keith Sweat, soul singer born Keith 'Sabu' Crier in New York, USA. Had a big 'Swing Beat' album Make it Last for Forever in 1989. He is a popular R&B/soul singer, songwriter, record producer and a major contributor to the New jack swing era. Before becoming a recording artist, Sweat worked for the commodities market in the New York Mercantile Exchange. He sang at nightclubs throughout New York City until he was discovered and offered a recording contract with Elektra Records in 1987. (mn-cl)
1969 Aretha Franklin was arrested for causing a disturbance in a Detroit car park. After paying a $50 fine, she apparently ran over a road sign on her way back to the street. (mn-jt)
1982 The Promised Land? - is broadcasted on BBC2 television. In A Question Of Colour, the first of a four part series, Caribbean ex-servicemen and women describe their reception in Britain immediately after the war. (mn-sb)
1986 Rankin' Festus presents his first programme on PCRL, "It was a Tuesday evening" he recalls in issue No.1 of the PCRL Bulletin magazine in 1987. Festus has been caught and fined by the DTI many times. He plays roots & 'reality music' as he calls it.Festas was renown for calling to the black community for restraint when 'black on black' violence was prevalent. He is now found on New Style 'Festas Time' a CLR, Government funded station. (mn)
1987 People to People (Skin and Coal) - Broadcasted by CH4 television, a documentary about two generations of black minors and their families living and working in Doncaster, Leeds and Nottingham. (mn-sb)
2005 Eugene Record, lead singer with The Chi-Lites died after a long battle with cancer, the president of the group's booking agency said. Record, 64, was the composer of many hits including The Chi-Lites classic, "Have You Seen Her?" and "Oh Girl," among others. The Chi-Lites were formed in Chicago in 1959, and Record slowly emerged as the group's lead singer, songwriter and producer, according to the group's Web site. He retired in the mid-1980s from the group, said Jack Bart, president and owner of Universal Attraction Inc., the group's New York-based booking agency. "He had a fabulous voice. He was an original member of the group and he was certainly an integral part of making the group The Chi-Lites as big as they were," Bart said. Record started The Chi-Lites with Marshall Thompson and Robert "Squirrel" Lester. Bart said Record was "a real gentleman" whose soft-spoken voice had much to do with the group's popularity. Bart had no funeral details for Record. In 2003, The Chi-Lites' song, "Are You My Woman?" was the basis for Beyonce's hit, "Crazy in Love." The Chi-Lites and Record most recently appeared in the documentary "Only the Strong Survive," directed by D.A. Pennebaker. Record is survived by his wife Jackie. (mn)
(A NYAHBINGHI DAY) Anniversary of the Revolution in Arab Republic of Egypt.
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 062: WILLIAM LEIDESDORFF (1810-1848)
1694 French force under Jean du Casse attack the island of Jamaica and was defeated at Carlisle Bay. (mn-cb)
1868 14th amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to African-Americans. (tr-iokts)
1891 Louis Tompkins Wright, physician born. Born in La Grange, Georgia, a doctor's son, Wright graduated from Clark University in Atlanta in 1911, and went on to medical school at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Wright voiced strong objection to being treated differently when a professor tried to prevent him from delivering babies at a white teaching hospital. This became an early example of his lifelong perseverance for equal rights. Unable to win an internship at any of Boston's hospitals despite graduating fourth in his class at Harvard, Wright did his postgraduate internship at Freedmen's Hospital, an affiliate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1916 he returned to Atlanta, went into practice with his stepfather, and joined the NAACP. When World War I began, Wright served as a lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps, ran a field hospital in France, and was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, he started a small, general practice in Harlem in 1919 that became affiliated with Harlem Hospital. All the while, he continued his NAACP work toward racial equality. As he became more prominent, Wright occasionally encountered opposition to his advocacy of more stringent educational standards; especially upset were those members of the black medical establishment who had grown used to separate and at times unequal, less rigorous schools. The New York Police Department appointed him Police Surgeon in 1929; in 1935 the NAACP made Wright the chairman of its Board; eight years later Harlem Hospital made him its Chief of Surgery. (jc-wickpedia) (dies 1952)
1892 Haile Selassie is born in Harare Province, Ethiopia. He became emperor of Ethiopia in 1930, his reign ended in 1974 when military leaders over through him. Haile Salassie worked for economic and social reform, such as making slavery punishable by law. He gave Ethiopia it's first written constitution in 1931. Ethiopia was attacked by fascist Italy in 1935 and Halie Salassie lived in exile in England until 1941. British forces liberated Ethiopia during World War II and restored him to the throne. Rebels seized the government on December 13th 1960 while he was in South America, but he regained his throne four days later. Haile Salassie was born Ras Tafafari, he belonged to a dynasty that claimed to be the descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. (dies 1975). (mn-jc-tr)
1924 Towsend Sonny Brewster, playwright and activist is born. (tr-iokts)
1942 Madeline Bell soul singer born today in Newark, New Jersey, USA. Bell arrived in the UK in 1962 with the cast of Black Nativity, a gospel show, but remained to embark on a sol career. Although early releases veered towards MOR, the singer's mid-60s recordings, include I Really Got Carried Away and Doin' Things Together With You, were among Britain's strongest home-grown soul singles. She had success with the group Blue Mink and a lucrative TV jingle recoring career. She also appeared in UK stage production of the Cotton Club in 1991. (mn-cl)
1969 James Brown day in Los Angeles, as decreed by the mayor of that city. (mn-jt)
2000 Sick Doc Dupes Dying With Aids Cure Con. Read the headline in the News Of The World. It referred to the late Ugandan Dr. Ssali's visit to the UK with his cure for the AIDS virus. The Doctor had spoke at length on PCRL earlier this month about his 'miracle cure.' (mn)
2006 Tiger Woods wins the Open Golf Tournement with a prize of £720,000. A second Open win, both at St Andrews, means Woods now has 10 majors, and he is only the second man to have won each of golf's four big prizes twice. This time he broke down in tears, as his father who died recently was'nt with him this time. (mn)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 063: JOHN JONES (1816-1879)
1802 Ira Aldridge, African Shakespearean actor, born in New York City. Famous for his Othello, he attended the African Free School in New York City until he was 16 before joining the African Grove theatre troop there in 1821. He studied acting in Glasgow and made his first known appearance in Turinam or Slave's Revenge in 1925. His career is commemorated by a tablet at the New Memorial theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. Died August 10, 1867. (mn-ss)
1908 Cootie Williams born. He was an African-American trumpeter whose mastery of mutes and expressive effects made him one of the most distinctive jazz musicians. Charles Melvin Williams was born in Mobile, Alabama. A self-taught trumpeter, Williams toured with several bands, including Lester Young's family band, in his mid-teens before moving to New York in 1928. The next year he replaced the influential Bubber Miley in the plunger-muted trumpet role in Duke Ellington's band, a role that was fundamental to their sound. Influenced by Louis Armstrong, Williams was a more modern stylist than Miley, with a wider range of technique. Also, Williams soon expanded his mutes' ranges of timbres and expression and became a master of open-horn playing. His emotional range, from intimate to extrovert, to harsh, was uncommonly wide, his sense of harmony was sophisticated, and he was a valuable improviser and interpreter. Among the hundreds of Ellington recordings on which he is featured, the Miniature Concertos, Echoes of Harlem, and Concerto for Cootie; he also led a small ensemble of fellow Ellington band members, Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters. Williams left Ellington in 1940 and spent a year in Benny Goodman's band. In the face of the general decline of the big band business, he led a rhythm-and-blues group. He rejoined Ellington in 1962 and after Duke's death he played in the Mercer Ellington band into the 1970s. Especially notable among his recordings is the 1957 album The Big Challenge, led by Williams and Rex Stewart. Cootie Williams died on September 15th, 1985, in New York City. (aareg)
1914 Frank Silvera born. He was an African-American actor. From Kingston, Jamaica, he moved to the United States and grew up with his family in Boston Public Schools. Silvera moved to New York City, where he launched his career as an actor. He joined the American Negro Theatre in Harlem and got a part in the play, "Anna Lucasta," that played successfully on Broadway and in London. Silvera was there at the beginning of a new era for Blacks in American theatre. He worked with Ossie Davis, Alice Childress, Ruby Dee, Sidney Portier, Maxwell Granville, Hilda Simms, Harry Belafonte, Stanley Green, Claudia McNeill, Diana Sands, Louise Stubbs, Isabel Cooley, Gertrude Jeannette, and a host of others, who entered the new American theatre scene. (aareg)
1934 Jimmy Holiday soul singer born in Durant, Mississippi, USA., d. 15 February 1987. This versatile singer first came to prominence in 1963 with the self-penned "How Can I Forget?" which was covered at the same time by Ben E. King. Holiday later joined the Minit label where he made several excellent recordings, ranging from the "Memphis"-influenced R&B of "You Won't Get Away" to the urban soul of "I'm Gonna Move To The City". His biggest hit on Minit was "Baby I Love You" (1966), a bigger hit for Little Milton in 1970. Holiday also recorded with former Raelette Clydie King, and later pursued a career as a songwriter on his departure from the label. A partnership with Randy Myers and Jackie DeShannon produced several excellent compositions, including the much-covered "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", recorded successfully in 1989 by Al Green and Annie Lennox. Holiday died of heart failure in 1987. (mn-oldies.com)
1941 Barbara Jean Love singer with The Friends Of Distinction born.The band was formed in 1968 by Floyd Butler (5 June 1941, San Diego, California, USA, d. 29 April 1990), Harry Elston (b. 4 November 1938, Dallas, Texas, USA), Jessica Cleaves (b. 10 December 1948, Los Angeles, California, USA) and Barbara Jean Love (b. 24 July 1941, Los Angeles, California, USA). This smooth vocal quartet began working together in the Ray Charles' revue. Stylistically similar to the Fifth Dimension, the Friends scored a million-selling hit with a vocal version of Hugh Masekela's "Grazing In The Grass" (1969). Two further releases, "Going In Circles" and "Love Or Let Me Be Lonely", were also substantial hits, before their sweet-harmony, MOR soul established them as an attraction on the cabaret circuit. (cl-oldies.com)
1954 Mary Church Terrell, first African American to serve on the Washington, D.C., Board of Education, dies in Washington, D.C., USA. A life-long activist for women's rights and civil rights, Terrell grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. After her graduation from Oberlin Collage in 1884 Terrell moved to Europe to escape racism at home. In 1896 she returned to US and founded the National Association of Colored Women, an important force for childcare, schools and for domestic sciences, and equal rights. She became more radical as she aged: in the 1950s, cane in hand, she successfully led the fight to desegregate Washington public restaurants. (tiokts-ss-mn) (1863-1954)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 064: ISAAC MYERS (1835-1891)
1892 Black Invention: Rotary Engine, Andrew J. Beard. (sc)
1906 Henry Brown, boogie-woogie piano player, born, Troy, Tenn, USA. (Died June 28, 1981, St. Louis , Tenn).Though he never recorded any albums Henry Brown was well known in the St. Louis Blues scene. He came to St. Louis at the age of twelve. Took up piano while still in school. He played an economical form of piano blues, taught to him by a Deep Morgan Street blues player known only as 'Blackmouth'. Brown became part of a trio called the Biddle Street Boys together with guitarist Lawrence Casey and Trombonist Ike Rodgers. Together with Ike he worked with St. Louis Jimmy Oden. He lived and worked most of his live in St. Louis, where he died in 1981. (rs-bluesdatabase)
1916 Inventor Garrett A. Morgan, who was born in Claysville, Kentucky, USA in 1877. He patented the gas mask in 1914, soon after it saved many lives, he receives gold medal today for his invention.
1951 Verdine White soul singer in the group Earth Wind And Fire born. Earth, Wind & Fire is an American funk band, formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1969. Led by Maurice White, they are best known for their hits of the 1970s, among them "After the Love Has Gone" produced by David Foster, "September", "Reasons", "Let's Groove", "Boogie Wonderland", "Fantasy" and "Shining Star". Earth, Wind & Fire became the first black performers to headline throughout the world without an opening act, to receive Madison Square Garden's Gold Ticket Award for selling more than 100,000 tickets and to receive the Columbia Records Crystal Globe Award for selling more than five million albums in foreign markets. They have gained the BET's Lifetime Achievement Award and ASCAP's Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award. They were the first black artists to have a single ("Shining Star") and its accompanying album (That's The Way Of The World) at number one status on the pop charts at the same time. (cl-wickpedia)
1972 U.S. government officials admit blacks were used as 'guinea pigs' in syphilis experiments at Tuskegee Institute, Al. In 1997 President Clinton apologises for this. (read: Bad Blood - Jones) (mn)
1984 Big Mama Thornton soul/blues singer dies. Born Willie Mae Thornton in Montgomery, Alabama on December 11, 1926, into a clerical family: her father was the minister of the local church. Her childhood was spent tending her sick mother, who died before her 14th birthday. She Started out in the late 30s as a dancer & comedian. Her singing was influenced by Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Big Maceo. She recorded the original version of Elvis's hit Hound Dog that was specially written for her by Leiber & Stoller, it was a hit for her in 1953. (mn-cl-rt)
1990 Earl Graves and Magic Johnson purchase the largest minority-controlled Pepsi-Cola franchise, in Washington, D.C., USA. (tr-iokts)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 065: JOHN MERRICK (1859-1921)
Independence Day-Republic of Liberia.
1865 Catholic priest Patrick Francis Healy becomes the first African American to ern a Ph.D. degree. (tr-iokts)
1938 Darlene Love, soul singer born Darlene Wright in Los Angeles, California, USA. A prolific vocalist, Love began her career in 1957 as a founder member of the Blossoms. This influential girl group not only enjoyed an extensive recording career in it's own right, but also appeared on scores of sessions and as the resident singers on US television's Shindig. Love also enjoyed a fruitful association with producer Phil Spector, sang lead vocals on the Crystal's He's A Rebel. In 1997 she was awarded considerable back-royalties for hits with Spector, after claiming she had no formal contract. (mn-cl)
1941 Bobby Hebb, singer born in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. An accomplished musician and songwriter, Hebb appeared on the Grand Ole Oprey at 12 and studied guitar with Chet Atkins. He later moved to New York, ostensibly to play with Mickey & Sylvia. His hit Sunny (1966), was written in memory of his brother Hal who died the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. (mn-cl)
1941 Brenton Wood soul singer born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shrevport, Louisiana, USA. Ran the 100 yards dash in 9.5 seconds while at high school. Sang with the Quotations before assuming the new name, had a novelty hit with the Ogum Bogum Song (1967), and Gimmie Little Sign (although not a novelty). Ten years later had a duet hit with Shirley Goodman with Come Softly To Me in 1977. (mn-cl)
1942 Dobie Gray soul singer born Leonard Victor Ainsworth in Brookshire, Texas, USA. Best remembered for his anthem-like The In-Crowd (1965) and Drift Away a 1973 ballad. There is also some argument as to his date of birth, but it is generally placed in the early 1940s. His birth name is also disputed, being listed as "Leonard Victor Ainsworth" or "Laurence Darrow Brown". Gray moved from Texas to California in the 1960s, where he was mentored by Sonny Bono and later took up residence in Nashville, Tennessee. Gray had other hits though, with songs such as "The In Crowd" in 1965, and "Out On The Floor" a whole decade later. (mn-jt)
1992 Mary Wells, soul singer dies at Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (throat cancer.) Born 13th May 1943, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Mary Wells, at one stage, was Tamla Motown's biggest Soul Singer. As a child, she had suffered from spinal meningitis, an illness that paralyzed her for a while, which led to partial blindness and a slight loss of hearing. At the age of 10, Mary began singing in local clubs and talent contests. When she was 17 years of age, she wrote the song 'Bye Bye Baby', which was originally intended to be given to Jackie Wilson. Mary ended up recording the song herself and it became her first Motown single in 1961. Her greatest success came, at the age of 21, with the Smokey penned tune 'My Guy', which was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching the top spot in the U.S. and the number 5 position in the U.K. Mary was then teamed with the late Marvin Gaye, recording an album of duets, with the song 'Once Upon A Time', released as a single. During this period, Mary had become friends with the Beatles and she, subsequently, toured with the group, recording an album entitled 'Love Songs To The Beatles' in 1965. She then left Motown moving to 20th Century Fox, who had offered her some movie work to go alongside her recording chores. Motown had to let her leave, as her original contract was signed at a time when she was underage. 20th Century had, allegedly, offered her several hundred thousand dollars to move to the label. After 1 year, however, she had left the label, following one single success with the song 'Use Your Head' in 1966. She married Cecil Womack (later of Womack and Womack and brother of Bobby Womack) in 1966 and the pair wrote and produced much of Mary's 60's and 70's output. Cecil used to be part of the group, the Valentino's. He and Mary had three children, however, the marriage was to end in divorce. Mary relocated to the Atco imprint at the time (moving on to the Jubilee, Reprise, Epic and Movietone labels at a later date) and had some minor hits with 'Dear Lover', 'Such A Sweet Thing' and 'The Doctor'. Following a fight with pneumonia, Mary became hospitalized and spent her last days at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Hospital. Mary Wells lost her battle against her illness on 28th July 1992 in California. She was 49. (soulwalking.com)
2006 Miss Lou dies. One of Jamaica's best loved cultural icons, the Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley has died at the age of 86. Miss Lou passed away on Wednesday at Scarborough Grace Hospital in Toronto, Canada, after collapsing at home earlier in the morning. Born in Kingston, Jamaica on September 7, 1919, Miss Lou was Jamaica's premier folklorist, story-teller, poet, entertainer and comedienne. As a cultural giant, she made Jamaica's patois an accepted language through her poems. Famous for her radio shows which included 'Laugh with Louise', 'Miss Lou's Views' and 'The Lou and Ranny Show', she was also celebrated for her television show 'Ring Ding,' which was popular among Jamaican children. Miss Lou has received many accolades and awards during her lifetime, including the Order of Jamaica in 1974; the Order of Merit in 2001; the Norman Manley Award for Excellence (in the field of Arts); the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Silver and Gold Medals for distinguished eminence in the field of Arts and Culture, and in 1983, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies.She was due to receive another award during a ceremony at the Jamaican Consulate this week. She would have been presented with the 2006 Jamaica Independence Award Hall of Fame from the West Indian-American Association of New Jersey. Several members of the Association were en-route to Toronto from the United States when Miss Lou passed away. Miss Lou, who has resided in Canada for more than a decade, visited Jamaica in 2003, where she was special guest of the government for Emancipation and Independence celebrations. Miss Lou, who was married to the late impresario, Eric "Chalktalk" Coverley, leaves behind a son Fabian and many "adopted" children. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date. (blackukonline)
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 066: MADAME C.J.WALKER (1869-1919)
1880 Black invention: refining coconut oil, A.P. Abourne, inventor, is awarded patent.
1898 Audley 'Queen Mother' Moore, civil rights activist is born in Los Angeles, California, USA. African American revolutionary, Pan-Africanist, Harlem activist for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. Organized domestic workers in Harlem and the Bronx in New York City, tenant housing organizer, joined the international Labor Defense in 1931, joined the Communist Party USA in 1933 for its program of liberation for the Black-belt Nation. Master street agitator and organizer, founding member of the National Council of Negro Women, founded the Universal Association of Ethiopian Women, active in welfare rights, prisoner rights, anti-racist violence. In 1962-3 she formed the Reparations Committee of Descendants of U.S. Slaves. In 1972 at a meeting of the All African Women's Conference in Dar Es Salaam she received the title of "Queen Mother." In 1968 Audley was a critical force in the declaration of the Republic of New Africa. She passed away at age 98. (tr-iokts)
1919 The Red Summer Race riots in Chicago (tension over blacks moving to white areas). (mn)
1929 Havey Fuqua, Motown producer/singer with the Moonglows born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He began moving towards A&R and production work in 1959 while still singing with the Moongows. In 1960 he disbanded the group and moved to Detroit to work with Gwen Gordy, Berry Gordy's sister, at her Anna label. The following year, he and Gwen Gordy, soon to be husband & wife, formed the Harvey & Tri-Phi labels. He later closed these down and joined Motown Artiste Development section which groomed Motown acts in stage performance and public behaviour. (mn-cl)
1943 Mary Love, gospel/soul vocals, b. Sacramento, CA, USA. After doing some session work as a teenager in Los Angeles, she got her chance to cut half a dozen singles for the Modern label in the mid 60's. These included 'You Turn My Bitter Into Sweet', I've Got To Get You Back', Let Me Know', Lay This Burden Down', 'Baby I'll Come', Talking About My Man' and Is That you?'. These were decent, commercial soul records, nothing more, nothing less, somewhat less pop-oriented than Motown, but not much. She managed to get hold of some material by noted writers Frank Wilson and Ashford & Simpson, but only managed one minor R & B hit for Modern, 'Move a Little Closer,' which made number 48 in 1966. Love revisited the lower reaches of the R & B Top 50 with 'The Hurt Is Just Beginning' for Josie in 1968, mysteriously, she only issued one more 45 for the Elco label, 'Born To Live With A Heartache', and that didn't come out until 1971. (info.net-soulwalking)
1974 Lightnin' Slim blues-man, dies in Detoit, Mich., Born Otis Hicks (March 13, 1913 - July 27, 1974), better known by the stage name Lightnin' Slim, was an American blues artist. Specialising in Louisiana and swamp blues, Lightnin' was born in St. Louis, Missouri and died of cancer in Detroit, Michigan. Lightnin' moved from Missouri to Louisiana at the age of thirteen. Taught guitar by his older brother Layfield, Lightnin' was playing bars in Baton Rouge by the late 1940s. He recorded for Excello for 12 years, starting in the mid 1950s. Slim often collaborated with his brother in law, Slim Harpo. In the 1970s Lightnin' performed on tours in Europe, both in England and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. (mn-jt-wickpedia)
Mikey Studio, PCRL staff birthday.
BLACK HEROES PAST & PRESENT 067: MAGGIE L. WALKER (1867-1934)
1868 The 14th Amendment, making blacks American citizens, adopted. (jc)
0189 Victor I, African Pope of Rome, is celebrated as a martyr. St. Victor was a native of Africa and succeeded St. Eleutherius as Pope, about the year 189. He opposed the heresies of that time and ex-communicated those who taught that Jesus Christ was only a man and not God. He was involved in the controversy regarding the date of Easter and confirmed the decree of Pope Pius 1, which ordered the Feast of Easter to be celebrated on a Sunday. He ruled the Church for ten years. His energy and zeal exposed him to persecutions for which alone he deserves the honors of a martyr, which are accorded him liturgically. This pope is named in the canon of the Ambrosian Mass and is said by St. Jerome to have been the first in Rome to celebrate the Mysteries in Latin. He was formerly held in special veneration in Scotland for having sent missionaries there. While we know little about him, we may reflect that it was through such people as St. Victor, that Christianity took root and has survived to be cherished by us some eighteen centuries later. (mn)
1903 Maggie Lena Walker founds the Saint Luke Penny Saving Bank, becoming the nation's first female bank president. A social activist, Walker was born in Richmond, Virginia. She taught in school until she married in 1896 and then joined an African-American fraternal and insurance cooperative called the Independent Order at St. Luke. She became the order's executive secretary-treasurer in 1899 and in 1903 founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond. By 1929 her bank had become quite large and bought out several other banks. She spent much of her life in a wheelchair after an accident in 1907, but she never ceased her activities, especially in promoting opportunities for African-Americans. (hear BHPAP tonight!) (tr-iokts-ss)
1917 Thousands of African American's march down New York's 5th Ave, in protest of lynching and racial equality. In response to the East St. Louis, Illinois riot, during which at least forty blacks are killed, ten thousand African Americans march silently down New York’s 5th Avenue in protest of black oppression. (jc)
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